CONSERVATION 

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MORAL 
RESOURCES 

ofihe 

NATION 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


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Rev.     Robert   Forbes,   D.  D. 

Corresponding  Secretary 

Board  of  Home  Missions 

and  Church  Extension 


CToie.^.   /vU-v..^^     -^o^e.|^k 

HE  CONSERVATION 
OF  THE  MORAL 
RESOURCES  OF 
THE  NATION 


^h^l  ■* 


A  Comprehensive  Study 
of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension 


COMPILED  BY 

HENRY  JOSEPH  COKER 


>C4 


DEDICATION 


This  book  is  dedicated  to  the 

REV.  ROBERT  FORBES,  D.  D., 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension, 

DR.  PLATT  and  DR.  BOSWELL, 

his  associates  in  ofi&ce, 
and  to  the 

BOARD  OF  MANAGERS 


6IUMPT0K  ACCESSIOft  O  O  9f  'T  ^ 

177P 
AMCMFT  UBIAiY 

JIJN,   I      1938  PREFACE. 

This  book  is  a  verbatim  report  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  recent  parliaments  held  in  the  interest  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  in 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Okla- 
homa, Colorado,  and  in  other  states  more  remotely. 

The  addresses  are  in  full,  and  are  given  by  men  of 
first  ability  and  experience.  No  more  informed  men  on 
their  various  themes  could  be  found. 

They  have  given  their  best  years  to  the  study  and 
work  of  their  various  departments,  many  of  them  in 
actual  service  in  the  various  missions  spoken  of  and 
wrought  out,  hence  their  utterances  are  the  results  of 
actual  contact  with  the  work. 

Any  man,  layman  or  minister,  cannot  afford  to  be 
without  this  book  for  the  understanding  of  his  own 
country,  his  religious  obligation,  and  his  better  knowing 
as  a  patriot  what  his  full  obligation  is,  and  to  the  being 
a  fully  informed  man  on  the  work  of  the  Church  of 
God. 

Every  famliy  should  have  it  in  the  home.  It  is  an 
education  to  read  its  full  pages  for  the  children;  for 
youth  in  preparation  of  Epworth  League  topics  and  the 
knowing  of  the  acts  of  the  Apostles  of  the  Twentieth 
Century. 

The  Compiler  is  indebted  to  the  men  and  Mrs.  Wil- 
liams, for  the  permission  to  publish  these  addresses  and 
lectures. 

We  are  trusting  that  in  the  churches  renewed  in- 
terest will  be  taken  in  saving  America,  and  bringing  it 
to  Christ,  for  our  nation's  sake  and  the  world's  sake. 

IJeNRY  J.  COKER. 


INDEX 

Page. 
Preview  of  the  Work  of  the  Parliament — 

Rev.  Henry  Joseph  Coker,  D.  D i 

The  Home  Missionary  in  Nation  Making — 
Rev.   Claudius  B.   Spencer,   S.  T.   D.,  Kansas 

City,   Mo , 7 

The  Frontier,  East,  West  and  South — 

Rev.  Ward  Piatt,  D.  D.,  Assistant  Correspond- 
ing  Secretary,   Philadelphia,   Pa 15 

The  Cry  of  the  Great  City — 

Rev.  Charles  Bayard    Mitchell,    D.    D.,    Chi- 
cago, 111 ( 29 

The  Winning  of  the  West — 

Rev.  W.  E.  Doughty,  A.  M.,  New  York  City.  .   47 

America  As  a  World  Power — 

Rev.  Bishop  Dr.  Jno.  L.  Nuelsen,  Omaha,  Neb.   65 

The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization — 

Rev.   Bishop  Dr.   William  A.    Otiayle,    Okla- 
homa City,  Okla.    . 86 

The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation — 

Rev.  1.  L.  Thomas,  D.  D.,  Baltimore,  Md 106 

The  Jew,  His  Future — 

Rev.  Louis  M.  Potts,  A.  M.,  Pittsburg,  Kan..  116 

Our  Insular  Possessions — 

Rev.  Benj.  S.  Haywood,  D.  D.,  Superintendent 

Porto  Rico   Mission    125 

Our  Mongolian  Peoples — 

Rev.  Herbert  B.  Johnson,  D.  D.,  Superintend- 
ent Japanese  Mission 142 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants — 

Rev.  Frederick  H.  Wright,  D.  D.,  Superin- 
tendent Italian    Mission    163 

The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children — 

Rev.  Henry  J.  Coker,  D.  D 180 

How  Are  We  Meeting  this  Mighty    Challenge — 
Among  the  Jews. 
Rev.  Louis  M.  Potts,  A.  M.,  Pittsburg,  Kan.  .  .188 

Among  the  Black  Men — 

Rev.  I.  L.  Thomas,  D.  D.,  Baltimore,  Md....i95 

Woman's  Work — 

Mrs.  Delia  L.  Williams,  National  Correspond- 
ing Secretary,  Woman's  Home  Mission- 
ary Society,  Delaware,    O 200 

Kansas  and  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
AND  Church  Extension — 
Rev.    Bascom    Roberts,    Ph.D.,    D.    S.,    Em- 
poria,   Kan.    .  .: 210 

The  Summons  to  a  New  Departure — 

Rev.  W.  E.  Doughty,  A.  M.,  New  York  City.  .214 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church 
Extension — 
Rev.  Chas.  M.  Boswell,  D.  D.,  Assistant  Cor- 
responding  Secretary 225 

Impromptu  Address — 

Rev.  Dr.  Bishop  William  A.  Quayle,  Okla- 
homa City,  Okla 231 

The  Responsibility  Upon  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions — 
Rev.  Ward  Piatt,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.... 237 

The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter — 

Rev.  Dr.  Bishop  William  A.  Quayle,  Okla- 
homa City,  Okla ,1. ... , 252 


Rev.  Fred   H.  Wright,  D.  D. 
Superintendent  Italian  Mission 


Rev.  Claudius  B.  Spencer,  LL.  D. 
Editor  Central  Christian  Advocate 


Rev.   Benjamin   S.  Haywood,  D.  D. 
Superintendent  Porto  Rico  Mission 


OPENING  SESSION  OF  PARLIAMENT. 

Convened:     2  o'clock  p.  m.     Prayer. 

Scripture  Reading:  15th  Chapter  of  Matthew,  by 
Rev.  Henry  J.  Coker,  D.  D.  (Miracle  of  the  Loaves  and 
Fishes). 

Dr.  Coker  :  That  was  a  Home  Missionary  scene ! 
Christ  was  a  Home  Missionary!  We  have  been  told 
that  he  was  a  foreign  missionary,  and  he  was  a  foreign 
missionary,  but  before  he  ever  became  a  foreign  mis- 
sionary, he  was  a  home  misionary.  There  were  many 
people  who  tried  to  get  him  away  from  his  own  land, 
from  his  own  people,  and  once  or  twice  he  did  go  just 
across  the  border,  but  his  ministry,  his  whole  life,  his 
whole  thought,  his  passion,  was  for  his  own.  "He  came 
unto  his  own — and  his  own  received  him  not."  So,  to- 
day, we  come,  and  we  have  in  our  mind  all  the  vast 
crowds  of  people  here,  that  are  hungering  and  thirsting, 
not  so  much  for  the  bread  that  perisheth,  as  for  the 
bread  of  life,  and  we  are  to  think  of  the  multitudes  that 
are  as  sheep  without  a  Shepherd.  Fifty  per  cent  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  never  darken  a  church  door. 
Forty-five  millions  of  people  in  America  never  darken  a 
church  door  of  any  sort,  Roman-Catholic,  Protestant, 
Jewish  or  what-not.  There  are  twenty  millions  that  go  to 


2  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

church  regularly.  Twenty-five  millions  of  people  that 
go  to  church  irregularly.  There  are  forty-five  millions 
of  people  in  America  that  never  go,  and  some  of  these 
are  near  you.  Some  of  these  will  be  found  right  in  your 
own  midst.  Some  of  these  will  be  found  in  the  down- 
town districts  of  our  great  centers  of  population.  These 
are  men,  women,  boys  and  girls,  who  are  hungry. 
They  know  not  many  of  them,  that  they  are 
hungry,  but  they  are  starving  for  the  bread  of  life. 
Only  three  per  cent  of  the  laboring  classes  of  the  people 
of  America  go  to  church.  A  great  leader  in  religious 
effort  once  made  a  canvass  of  the  City  of  Columbus, 
Ohio,  in  which  he  worked,  and  he  found  that  about  3% 
of  the  laboring  classes,  17%  of  the  rich,  and  about  55% 
of  the  well-to-do  went  to  church.  The  balance  never 
went  to  church. 

A  factory  in  New  England  was  canvassed  at  one 
time,  a  factory  "manned"  (that  is  scarcely  the  proper 
term) — that  was  "girled"  with  girls.  Perhaps  that  is 
a  little  better.  It  was  discovered  that  15%  went,  mainly 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  churches. 

So  that  here  we  have  the  mighty  multitudes  over 
which  the  Christ-heart  almost  breaks,  within  the  sound 
of  bells,  some  of  them,  and  without  the  sound  of  bells, 
thousands  and  millions  of  them,  even  in  Christian  Amer- 
ica, and  that  is  the  problem  that  is  before  us  now. 

I  wonder,  this  afternoon,  as  we  come  here  to  learn 
about  these  people;  whether  or  no,  it  shall  not  educate 


Preview  of  Parliament  3 

our  hearts  and  make  us  feel  the  need,  the  positive  need, 
the  actual  necessity,  of  bringing  America  to  Christ. 

Beloved,  I  greet  you  in  the  name  of  the  great  Board 
of  Home  Mission  and  Church  Extension,  that  we  here 
represent.  I  greet  you  in  the  name  of  Methodism,  in  its 
largeness,  and  yet  in  its  one-ness,  and  in  its  unity.  I 
greet  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  pray  that  as 
we  tarry  together  for  the  hours  until  to-morrow  night 
shall  arrive,  it  shall  be  a  day  and  a  night,  a  day  and 
another  night,  of  individual  and  collective  blessings,  that 
shall  send  us  forth  as  great  dynamos  of  power,  and  to 
bring  about  revolutions  in  the  knowledge  of  our  people. 

I  remember  once,  traveling  in  England,  I  was  trying 
to  find  the  cottage  where  Milton  wrote  his  ^'Paradise 
Lost."  I  stopped  occasionally  on  the  way,  to  find  where 
that  cottage  was.  Stopping  at  a  house  2j^  miles  from 
the  place,  I  asked,  "Can  you  tell  me  where  Milton's  cot- 
tage is?"  "Milton?  No  such  man  as  Milton  lives  about 
here."  I  replied,  "No,  I  did  not  expect  that  John  Milton 
lived  here  now,  but  he  did  live,  lived  tremendously,  a 
while  ago,  and  I  understand  there  is  a  cottage  here, 
somewhere  near  by,  where  he  wrote."  The  answer  was 
"No,  I  don't  remember  anything  about  him."  We 
reached  the  cottage,  driving  about  two  miles,  to  a  little 
snug  village  called  Chalfant  St.  Giles.  In  the  midst  of  it, 
the  structure  stood  with  a  great  placard  on  its  side,  "Mil- 
ton's Cottage."  How  strange  that  one  should  be  so  near 
as  important  a  place  and  yet  not  know.     Brothers,  are 


4  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

we  "long-sighted,"  so  that  we  do  not  see  the  things 
near-by  ?  Jesus'  heart  ached  for  the  multitudes  near  him. 
May  our  hearts  ache  for  the  multitudes  in  our  own  land 
today,  and  may  we  in  our  prayers  and  thought  seel^  to 
give  them  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  the  purpose 
of  the  gathering;  and  so,  let  us  pray. 

PRAYER. 

O,  God,  we  come  together  in  this  presence  this  day 
to  learn.    We  are  students. 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  things  as  accomplished,  or 
near  accomplishment,  when  sometime  we  shall  find  that 
the  multitudes  are  yet  hungry.  O,  have  we  ministered 
with  these  hands?  Have  we  helped  with  these  powers 
of  ours?  Have  our  influences  been  all  the  time  toward 
the  uplift  of  the  mighty  multitudes? 

Almighty  God,  grant  that  in  this  great  Conference 
there  shall  come  so  much  of  enlightenment,  inspiration 
and  enthusiasm,  as  that  each  of  us  shall  go  forth  to  do 
His  will,  and  to  live  His  life  among  men,  seeking  to 
uplift  and  bless  all  about  us. 

The  prayer  of  our  heart  is — God  save  America; 
save  her  from  drunkenness,  save  her  from  licentiousness, 
save  her  from  the  evils  that  are  cursing  her,  save  her 
from  bankruptcy  of  morals. 

Save  her  to  the  high  place  of  being  God's  chosen 
agent  in  the  salvation  of  men  in  all  regions,  everywhere, 
nearby  and  beyond  the  sea. 


Prayer  5 

Thou  didst  have  a  purpose,  O  Lord,  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  government.  We  are  thy  chosen  people 
today,  for  a  mighty  purpose.  We  have  been  chosen  be- 
cause of  our  abilities,  and  because  of  our  peculiar  fitness; 
but  if  we  today,  in  these  days  of  seeming  decHne  in  some 
lines  of  churchly  activities  and  power,  if  we  shall  lose 
character  with  Thee,  then  the  world  is  the  poorer,  and 
the  time  is  delayed  when  we  shall  be  the  light-house  of 
God  for  the  salvation  of  the  nations.  O,  God,  may  it 
come  to  every  heart  of  the  men  and  women  who'  attend 
here  today  and  tomorrow,  so  that  we  too  shall  go  down 
into  the  garden  with  our  Christ  and  say,  "Father,  not 
my  will  but  Thine  be  done."  , 

Have  we  had  too  much  leisure?  Have  we  been  too 
careful  with  our  strength?  Have  we  not  been  willing 
to  be  sacrificed  with  Christ?  Have  we  not  been  willing 
to  be  nailed  with  Him  upon  the  Cross?  Have  we  not 
been  willing  to  go  with  Him  in  all  the  needy  places  of  the 
earth?     He  was  the  son  of  man  and  he  died  for  men. 

Help  us  to  be  partners  with  him,  in  the  mighty 
work  of  saving  our  own  land  and  the  world,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord. 


It  will  now  be  necessary  for  me  to  make  a  few 
introductory  remarks. 

We  have  a  great  program,  and  it  is  logical.  We 
shall  have  two  addresses  this  afternoon,  and  then  we 
shall  begin  ''The  Challenge" — the  challenge  that  comes 


6  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

with  its  mighty  swelHng  tide  of  questions  up  to  the 
church.  We  shall  continue  The  Challenge  until  to- 
morrow noon,  and  then  we  shall  consider  the  question, 
"How  are  we  meeting  this  mighty  challenge,"  and  you 
will  see  where  the  replies  are  coming  from.  The  night 
sessions  will  be  of  more  popular  nature,  but  still  a 
challenge. 


I  now  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  Dr. 
Claudius  B.  Spencer,  who  is  the  editor  of  the  Central 
Christian  Advocate. 


THE  HOME  MISSIONARY  IN  NATION  MAKING. 

REV.   CLADIUS  B.   SPENCER. 

Not  long  ago,  I  stood  upon  the  very  spot,  where 
Patrick  Henry  uttered  those  immortal  words,  "Give  me 
liberty  or  give  me  death."  Not  very  long  afterwards,  I 
climbed  up  into  a  high  tower,  and  saw  the  place  where 
a  lantern  was  hung  out,  to  tell  whether  the  men  in  that 
fleet  would  come  by  land  or  sea,  and  the  hero  raced, 
with  clattering  hoofs,  to  Lexington,  to  spread  the  alarm, 
that  those  farmers  might  take  up  their  arms,  and  at  Con- 
cord Bridge  fire  that  shot  which  was  heard  around  the 
world  and  reverberates  still. 

Where  were  those  names?  They  were  both  in 
Christian  churches.  It  is  more  than  a  coincidence.  It 
is  one  of  those  strange  providences  by  which  the  Eternal 
gives  his  great  demonstrations  and  lessons  for  those  that 
see. 

We  always  see,  in  tracing  the  story  of  his  land, 
that  the  growth,  the  founding,  the  discovery,  and  the 
maturing  of  this  land,  has  been  connected  with  the 
Christian  church,  and  that  is  my  aim. 

Mr.  Price  says,  "the  religious  impulse,  and  religious 
consciousness,  underlaid  the  discovery  of  America.'* 


8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

I  have  stood  in  that  little  narrow  street  where  John 
Robinson  preached  the  sermon  before  the  Pilgrims 
started  in  the  Mayflower;  and  we  all  know  that 
before  they  voyaged  through  the  ocean  to  implant  in 
New  England  a  new  commonwealth,  they  had  a  famous 
meeting  in  the  Mayflower.  It  was  a  religious  meeting. 
They  took  possession  of  this  new  world  in  the  name  of 
God,  and  if  we  were  to  trace  the  story  of  the  discovery 
of  all  that  coast  line,  we  would  find  it  animated  by  that 
same  principle.  I  haven't  time,  or  I  would  like  to  trace 
the  difference  in  those  religious  ideas,  the  ideas  that  made 
New  England,  that  made  Maryland.  I  had  an  entire 
book  copied,  in  the  Congressional  Library,  so  I  might 
get  down  to  the  facts,  regarding  the  boast  we  often  hear 
that  it  was  the  Roman  church  that  was  the  author  of 
civil  liberty.  I  wish  to  disprove  that,  some  of  these  fine 
days. 

If  we  look  to  see  the  animating  motive,  at  the 
foundation,  we  find  it  expressed  in  these  very  thoughts, 
so  beautifully  pictured  by  Mrs.  Hemans,  of  those  Pil- 
grims in  the  Gothic  arches  of  those  woods,  and  how  the 
wild  woods  rang  with  the  anthem  of  the  free,  who  had 
journeyed  part  way  across  a  world,  that  in  the  newly 
discovered  continent  they  might  find  that  religious  free- 
dom on  which  all  great  progress  must  rest. 

If  this  be  true  in  the  discovery  in  this  western  world, 
it  was  equally  true  in  its  development.  Across  the  moun- 
tains came  these  rugged  pioneers,  and  close  upon  their 
trail  came  these  very  itinerants. 


The  Home  Missionary  in  Nation  Making  9 

Richard  Nollis,  that  particular  itinerant,  always  on 
the  trail  of  the  uttermost  man  in  the  pioneering  of  the 
early  land,  came  across  a  man  just  making  a  clearing  far 
in  the  southwest.  The  man  asked  who  he  was,  and  the 
answer  was  a  Methodist  preacher.  The  man  said,  "I 
have  just  hitched  my  team  and  driven  away  in  the  wilder- 
ness, to  get  away  from  the  Methodist  preachers."  "You 
cannot  do  that,  in  time  or  eternity;  if  you  go  to  Heaven 
you  will  find  Methodist  preachers;  in  Hell  you  will  find 
some  renegade  Methodist  preachers,  and  I  advise  you 
wherever  you  are,  to  make  your  peace  with  the  Methodist 
preacher." 

There  was  always  a  call,  always  a  vision  of  some- 
body farther  on,  with  that  intrepid  itinerant,  and  I  never 
will  forget  the  impression  made  on  me  when  I  first  read 
the  story  of  how  he  came  to  a  stream,  in  quest  of  that 
last  man,  thrust  his  horse  into  that  stream,  how  the  cur- 
rent swept  the  horse  from  under  him;  and  when  at  last 
they  found  his  body  far  down  the  stream,  there  was  a 
peace  not  of  this  world  resting  upon  his  face. 

My  friends,  that  was  what  made  America.  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  in  his  "Winning  of  the  West,"  pictured  a  man 
coming  over  from  England,  very  much  like  the  hardy 
man  that  penetrated  the  wilds  of  Africa.  He  came  into 
the  great  wilderness  of  the  far  West,  and  found  himself 
by  the  banks  of  a  great  stream,  making  his  way  some 
where  into  this  unknown  west.  As  he  hung  up  his  little 
kettle  to  make  an  evening  meal,  he  saw  a  canoe  coming 


lo  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

around  a  bend  in  the  stream,  and  out  of  that  canoe  came 
a  man  he  described  as  one  would  describe  a  Colossus.  It 
was  Daniel  Boone,  the  hardy  prototype  of  the  kind  of 
timber  that  made  the  Mississippi  valley  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  west,  that  came  along  that  same  line 
as  Oglesby  and  Logan,  that  Black  Eagle  of  Illinois;  and 
that  name  never  to  be  spoken  but  with  reverence,  that 
will  make  the  city  of  Springfield  immortal  a  thousand 
years  from  now. 

Out  of  those  places  came  the  pillars  of  America,  and 
along  those  same  trails,  pushing  on  into  the  trackless 
wilderness,  the  Methodist  itinerant  went,  and  so  made 
America  possible. 

You  may  think  I  have  taken  that  last  sentence  for 
granted,  but  let  us  stop  and  think,  that  it  was  those 
itinerant  preachers,  on  the  trails  of  the  farthermost  man, 
that  brought  about  the  early  revivals  of  which  the  fathers 
have  spoken  and  some  of  them  heard  of  with  their  own 
ears.  You  remember  they  appointed  a  commission  in 
Princeton  University  to  go  out  and  investigate  the  re- 
vivals, where  they  had  all  sorts  of  queer  "psychic  pheno- 
mena," they  would  call  it  in  these  days,  I  suppose.  Some 
of  those  professors  went  back  and  reported  that  it  would 
be  mighty  good  to  have  that  same  kind  of  affliction 
break  out  in  Princeton  University.  It  was  that  which 
held  the  pioneers  in  the  leash,  that  kept  them  from 
barbarism;  made  it  possible  to  write  in  the  constitution 
of  these  states  of  the  West  the  name  of  God;  and  made 
this  land  a  Christian  state. 


The  Home  Missionary  in  Nation  Makin£^  1 1 

You  remember  the  time  came  when  it  was  a  question 
whether  it  should  be  Kansa^e  slave  or  Kansas  free. 
Who  settled  that  question?  Why,  it  was  those  grand 
men  over  in  New  England,  that  went  marching  through 
the  streets  of  Boston,  singing  aloud  the  lines  of 
Whittier: 

"We  crossed  the  prairies  as  of  old 

Our  fathers  crossed  the  sea, 
To  make  the  west  as  they  the  east, 
The  homestead  of  the  free." 

It  was  that,  which  laid  the  foundations  of  our  col- 
leges. We  have  six  colleges  and  one  academy  in  the 
State  of  Iowa,  Methodist  colleges,  all  croweded  to  the 
doors. 

How  did  that  happen?  I  will  tell  you.  It  was 
because  there  was  in  those  Methodist  pioneers  a  love 
of  that  highest  life,  which  they  knew  very  well  and 
interpreted  very  wisely,  could  only  be  realized  by  Chris- 
tian education.  They  went  along  through  heavily 
wooded  prairies,  where  smoke  came  from  the  wigwams, 
as  I  have  heard  men  say  that  saw  it  with  their  own 
eyes,  and  because  it  was  so  far  from  the  college  through 
the  timber,  they  started  another  college  at  Fayette,  Iowa, 
and  called  it  the  upper  Iowa  University.  You  know 
the  story.  It  is  where  they  used  to  have  their  rendez- 
vous. Along  came  the  wind  and  took  the  roof  off  the 
college.  When  they  got  it  spiked  on  again,  along  came 
a  tempest  a  little  more  strenuous  than  the  first,  and  took 
the  roof  off  again,  and  they  spiked  it  on  again.     Along 


1 2  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

came  a  time  when  the  reverberations  reached  the  fur- 
thermost hills  of  Iowa,  and  they  had  a  meeting  in  that 
little  chapel.  Men  destined  to  be  known  to  fame  were 
there.  The  lady  who  was  the  Dean  of  Women,  we 
would  call  it  now,  of  Iowa,  brought  out  a  flag  of  red, 
white  and  blue  stars  and  stripes,  that  had  been  sewed 
by  the  very  hands  of  the  girls  who  were  members  of 
that  school.  She  gave  that  flag  to  the  student  boys, 
about  to  march  to  the  front,  and  told  them  of  the  love 
of  country  that  had  gone  into  every  stripe  of  that  flag, 
told  them  to  hold  it  on  high  in  memory  of  those  who 
gave  it  to  them,  and  told  them  if  any  of  them  fell,  that 
flag  should  rest  on  their  bodies  when  placed  in  their 
graves.  Now  then,  if  that  is  what  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  our  American  life,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  we 
have  come  to  what  we  have;  and  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  we  front  the  future  with  a  gladdened  heart. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  know  very  well  that  today — 
for  it  is  today  that  we  are  here  to  consider  it — there 
are  intakes  from  various  streams  and  sewers  which 
would  point  to  something  of  a  different  story  than  I 
have  alluded  to,  but  I  want  to  stand  here  this  afternoon 
and  say,  and  hope  that  it  will  not  be  forgotten,  that 
with  all  of  our  faults,  the  time  never  has  been  when 
there  was  so  large  a  percentage  of  good  men  in  this 
country  as  there  is  today. 

We  say  this  is  a  grand  nation.  Sometimes  it  looks 
as  if  it  was  kind  of  blown  in  the  flask,  or  had  that  label 


The  Home  Missionary  in  Nation  Making  13 

but  when  you  come  to  sample  the  contents,  they  do  not 
quite  taste  the  same.  Lord  Roseberry  told  a  friend  of 
mine  that  over  in  America,  it  was  like  a  glass  of  whiskey 
because  "you  keep  pouring  in  the  water  until  there  isn't 
very  much  of  the  whiskey  left."  It  is  that  way  with 
America.  You  have  been  pouring  in  so  much  from  the 
outside  w^orld  that  there  isn't  so  much  of  the  original 
left."  When  I  saw  the  election  returns  the  other  day 
over  in  Missouri  particularly,  I  thought  America  was 
the  glass  of  water  and  they  put  so  much  whiskey  in, 
there  wasn't  very  much  water  left.  I  am  glad  to  see 
there  were  2,000  people  in  St.  Louis  of  the  50,000 
voters  there,  who  would  stand  up  and  carry  a  glass  of 
water  with  them  into  the  poling  place,  instead  of  a 
flask  of  whiskey.  You  cannot  sow  tares  and  reap 
wheat.  They  have  already  had  one  murder  in  St.  Louis, 
directly  chargeable  to  the  saloons,  since  election  day. 
That  goes  with  the  bargain,  put  in  like  a  chromo,  when 
goods  are  bought  over  that  counter.  I  shall  not  speak 
of  that,  for  on  this  platform  is  a  specialist  in  that,  and 
others  who  will  analyze  the  American  land  of  today. 
It  is  for  me  to  speak  of  what  it  is  that  lies  behind  us. 
Behind  us  and  pressing  down  upon  us  with  radiant  glory 
and  with  lambent  flame,  are  the  figures  of  those  who 
laid  here  in  this  western  hemisphere  the  foundations  of 
the  American  state. 

Closing,  I  can  but  think  of  an  incident  last  summer. 
With  Bishop  Hamilton  and  the  president  of  our  college, 


14  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

we  went  up  into  the  north,  stopping  over  at  the  site  ot 
the  ancient  seat  of  learning.  We  pushed  on  through 
glacial  meadows,  reminding  me  of  our  own  prairies,  to 
where  there  are  three  great  hills,  that  are  said  to  con- 
tain the  three  great  gods  of  the  Norse.  One  was  the 
grave  of  Thor,  where  we  get  our  "Thursday,"  the  god 
of  the  hammer,  whose  motto  was  "I  will  either  find  a 
way  or  I  will  make  one.' 

When  we  reached  the  top  of  that  great  hill,  a  little 
maid  came  out,  with  some  mead  made  after  the  ancient 
recipe,  in  a  long  horn.  She  passed  it  to  each  of  us, 
and  what  I  did  not  spill  on  my  shirt  front  I  drank,  and 
it  was  so  very  good  I  did  not  spill  a  drop  that  way. 
The  president  of  the  University  gave  us  a  little  story 
of  that  hill,  saying,  *This  is  the  grave  of  Thor.  Away 
down  under  the  top  of  this  hill,  Thor  sits  with  the  sleep 
of  death  upon  his  brow,  and  near  him  his  horse  is  stamp- 
ing on  the  pavement  with  his  golden  shoes,  and  neighing 
loudly,  that  Thor  shall  come  forth  again,  leap  into  his 
saddle,  and  go  riding  off  through  the  universe." 

This  is  a  metaphor  in  a  way  of  that  which  brings 
us  here  today.  Thor  is  in  the  sleep  of  death ;  Thor  is 
dead.  The  old  heathenism,  the  old  philosophies,  are 
dead,  and  we  must  come  to  this  America,  with  a  living, 
a  puissant  a  mighty  Christ,  or  this  land  of  ours  will  have 
no  leadership  and  no  guaranty  of  a  high  distiny.  (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Dr.  Ward  Piatt,  author  of  the  Frontier,  was  intro- 
duced. 


THE   FRONTIER,   EAST,   WEST  AND   SOUTH. 

DR.   WARD  PLATT,   ASSISTANT  CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY 

OF  THE  BOARD   OF   HOME   MISSIONS  AND   CHURCH 

EXTENSION. 

What  is  anybody  going  to  do,  after  an  introduc- 
tion like  that?  (Laughter,)  You  are  under  no  obliga- 
tion to  applaud,  or  to  keep  awake,  during  this  speech. 
I  wont  be  as  mean  as  the  man  making  an  address,  who 
said,  "Wake  that  man  up  before  I  proceed."  The  reply 
was,  "Wake  him  up  yourself;  you  are  the  man  that  put 
him  to  sleep."  It  will  be  just  a  personal  matter  between 
the  speaker  and  yourself,  if  you  want  a  little  repose. 

We  have  had  a  good  year,  because  you  have  helped 
us  to  have  a  good  year.  We  find  our  income  over  last 
year  is  $58,000,  something  of  an  increase.  Last 
year,  the  increase  over  the  year  before  was  $42,000,  so 
that  we  have  had  an  increase  of  $100,000  in  two  years. 
Last  year  our  reduction  in  administration  expenses  was 
$14,000,  and  this  year  we  have  been  able  to  make  an 
additional  reduction  of  $16,500.  That  makes  $30,500 
in  two  years  added  to  the  hundred  thousland  dollar 
increase.  While  a  year  ago  we  had  a  debt  of  $165,000 
that  made  us  feel  rather  blue;  this  last  year  we  were 
able  to  pay  something  over  $72,000  of  that  debt  and  to 


1 6  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

increase  our  appropriations  for  home  missions  by  about 
$30,000.  Through  the  action  of  the  general  committee 
and  the  plans  submitted  for  the  remaining  debt  of  about 
$96,000,  if  you  give  us  even  no  better  than  what  was 
given  us  this  past  year,  provision  will  be  made  to  pay 
off  that  debt;  and  the  next  year  our  appropriation  will 
be  larger  than  the  appropriation  of  last  year,  not  only 
by  $30,000  but  by  $75,000;  and  we  will  be  putting 
$50,000  more  into  church  extension  than  we  are  this 
year.  So  we  feel  that  somehow  we  are  getting  under 
wayi 

Now,  the  average  of  all  Methodists,  that  is  all 
white  American-speaking  conferences  last  year  or  the 
year  before  (I  have  not  figured  up  the  per  capita  for 
last  year)  was  31c  per  capita  for  our  board;  but 
in  this  reckoning  we  take  in  all  those  white 
conferences  in  the  South,  where  they  can  hardly 
get  their  heads  above  water,  some  of  those  where 
the  pastor's  support  is  less  than  $200  a  year  average. 
That  brings  it  down  so  the  average  is  31  cents. 
You  notice  the  Wisconsin  conference,  with  all  the 
home  missionary  problems  it  has  up  there,  strikes 
the  level  of  all  Methodism.  The  Minnesota  conference 
dropped  down  below  the  average  to  26  cents.  You  can 
see  where  the  Illinois  and  Indiana  conferences  are.  We 
do  not  understand  the  Indiana  conference  with  the 
average  of  13  cents.  We  can  talk  about  that  now,  be- 
cause we  are  not  there.      (Laughter.)      Dr.   Haywood 


The  Frontier  17 

tells  us  about  Porto  Rico,  with  all  its  vast  need,  and 
just  come  up  out  of  the  dirt;  yet  while  the  Illinois  con- 
ference gives  25  cents  per  capita,  for  which  we  are  grate- 
ful, and  the  Indiana  conference  13  cents,  we  get  from 
little  Porto  Rico  16  cents  a  head.  We  are  trying  to 
get  up  to  $1  a  head.  You  say  that  is  too  small,  and  so 
it  is,  but  we  are  going  up  to  the  Japanese  standard.  We 
are  going  to  have  our  Japanese  Brother  to  speak  to  us. 
The  Japanese  do  not  know  any  more  than  to  send  to  us 
$1.02  a  head,  for  all  the  hundreds  that  belong  to  our 
church  in  this  country,  men,  women,  and  children,  up 
and  down  the  Pacific  coast. 

You  say  I  am  trying  tO'  be  sarcastic.  Nothing  is 
farther  from  my  thoughts.  We  might  as  well  gtX  at 
the  facts.  That  is  what  we  are  here  for.  When  we  come 
up  to  what  would  be  our  normal  average,  let  us  thank 
God,  we  will  get  this  world  evangelized  in  a  very  short 
time. 

I  am  going  to  speak  now  of  the  "frontier"  of  the 
South.  Louisiana  is  about  as  much  a  frontier  state  as 
you  find  anywhere  in  the  west,  new  railroads  being  con- 
structed, cities  being  built,  and  calls  coming  for  frontier 
churches  to  be  built.  It  is  a  vast  territory  and 
we  are  much  needed  there.  The  south — what  are 
we  there  for?  Dr.  Thomas  is  representing  the  20  col- 
ored conferences  in  the  south.  Nobody  would  think 
for  a  moment  that  was  a  losing  investment,  that  it  was 
not  the  best  thing  to  do!     Three  hundred  thousand  of 


1 8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

whom  a  bishop  in  the  south  said,  'They  are  the  best 
body  of  colored  people  on  this  planet."  We  have  2,000 
black  preachers.  In  45  years  they  have  progressed  from 
3  to  57%  of  literacy.  The  remarkable  progress  that 
race  is  making  has  not  been  paralleled  by  any  race  in  his- 
tory, and  it  is  to  the  glory  of  Methodism,  she  has  had  a 
hand  in  that.  I  am  not  talking  ecclesiastical  politics,  but 
the  question  is  rising,  whether  the  20  black  conferences 
are  going  off  by  themselves,  to  help  make  a  great  con- 
solidated black  Methodism  in  this  country.  I  am  not 
stopping  to  consider  whether  they  can  get  along  without 
us.  If  you  go  over  that  south  country,  and  figure  what 
the  black  man  is  going  to  be  in  the  next  25  years,  you 
will  straighten  up  and  ask  the  question  whether  we  can 
spare  the  black  man  out  of  our  Methodism. 

While  we  have  given  money  to  support  his  preacher, 
and  help  build  his  churches,  yet  if  you  will  add  all  the 
money  spent  in  this  direction  they  have  actually  added 
five  million  dollars  of  church  property  to  Methodism, 
more  than  we  have  ever  spent  in  the  ways  I  mentioned. 
It  is  a  mighty  race  and  it  is  coming  to  its  own. 

When  we  talk  about  those  20  colored  conferences, 
you  ask  why  we  are  down  there.  We  are  not  there  be- 
cause we  want  to  be.  We  have  1300  white  preachers 
down  there  and  they  propose  to  belong  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church. 

I  have  just  been  reading  Parson  Brownlow's  book, 
and  how  those  30  counties    in    east    Tennessee    stood 


The  Frontier  19 

squarly  for  the  union.  Did  you  notice  in  the  last  elec- 
tion 30  counties  in  east  Tennessee  took  a  peculiar  stand  ? 
They  have  a  kind  of  individuality,  down  there. 

There  is  a  teacher  in  the  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary school  that  is  doing  good  work  in  a  school  in 
Alabama.  I  said,  *'will  you  put  in  a  few  sentences 
why  you  want  to  belong  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal, 
when  there  is  another  Methodist  church,"  She  said, 
**There  are  some  things  that  have  been  fought  and  bled 
for,  and  that  is  what  we  stand  for.  Another  thing  is, 
we  want  to  belong  to  a  church  that  takes  in  the  whole 
world,  not  just  one  section." 

We  have,  white  and  black,  in  the  South,  575,000 
members  and  3,300  preachers.  We  have  over  8j^  mil- 
lions in  property.  You  cannot  wash  your  hands  of  that 
matter  in  a  day.  Take  the  different  classes  of  people  we 
have  in  the  South.  I  just  touched  on  the  colored  man, 
along  that  frontier.  Take  the  five  millions  of  lowland 
whites.  I  haven't  time  in  which  to  depict  them.  That 
is  a  frontier  problem.  Take  the  four  millions  of  mountain 
whites,  and  out  of  their  number  into  our  Methodism  are 
coming  preachers  all  out  of  proportion  to  their  number. 

In  Kentucky  and  east  Tennessee,  the  country  is 
awakening.  It  is  like  a  great  giant,  and  is  just  coming 
to  its  own  in  a  material  sense.  It  is  destined  to  be  a 
country  of  vast  wealth. 

The  West  Virginia  conference  fairly  took  my 
breath  away.     When  I  was  there  a  few  weeks  ago,  I 


20  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

found  our  membership  outnumbered  any  other  Method- 
ism in  that  state  two  to  one.  We  have  more  members 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  in  West  Virginia 
\than  all  the  other  Proteslfant  Denominations  put  to- 
gether, and  that  state  in  five  years  from  now  is  going 
to  take  a  front  rank  in  Protestantism,  in  Church  archi- 
tecture. 

I  know  a  professor  in  a  school — if  I  named  the 
school  some  of  you  would  recognize  it — who  came  from 
a  place  in  Alabama,  20  miles  from  a  railroad.  He  de- 
termined he  would  get  an  education,  and  help  to  get 
his  brothers  and  sisters  educated.  He  has  been  to  Har- 
vard this  summer,  taking  a  summer  course  to  enlarge 
his  vision.  You  will  hear  from  that  man.  Perhaps  if 
you  went  to  the  little  Methodist  church  where  he  was 
brought  up,  20  miles  from  the  railroad,  with  its  simple 
services,  you  might  say,  if  Methodism  in  40  years  can- 
not do  anything  better,  you  better  close  that  up,  but  at 
least  35  people  came  out  of  that  church  into  the  profes- 
sional and  mercantile  life  of  the  nation,  as  a  mighty 
Christian  contribution  to  it.  Perhaps  the  average  church 
anywhere  does  not  have  as  good  a  history,  of  putting  as 
much  good  fiber  into  the  community,  in  proportion  to  its 
opportunities.  I  suppose  there  has  not  been  a  year 
when,  if  you  looked  at  that  old  church,  you  would  think 
it  was  doing  any  better  than  now. 

One  of  seven  district  superintendents  in  a  con- 
ference there  was  asked  to  make  an  opening  speech  on 


I 


The  Frontier  2 1 

the  evening  of  our  anniversary.  He  was  a  typical 
mountain  white  who  had  lived  75  miles  from  a 
railroad.  The  first  train  of  cars  he  saw,  was  the 
one  that  took  him  to  school.  When  he  got  to  Chat- 
tanooga, he  made  his  way  as  best  he  could  by  delivering 
papers.  He  is  now  superintendent  of  an  important  dis- 
trict, and  presides  in  quarterly  conferences  over  the  very 
men  to  whom  he  delivered  newspapers.  You  might  as 
well  try  to  stop  the  tide  as  to  stop  the  irresistible  forces 
in  those  border  conferences,  and  what  we  ought  to  do 
is  to  nurture  and  encourage  them.  When  asked  **Why 
don't  you  grow  faster?"  they  reply,  "We  will  grow  fast 
enough  if  you  let  our  preachers  alone  and  not  be  stealing 
them  away."  They  grow  preachers  down  there  all  out  of 
proportion  to  what  our  other  conferences  do.  I  was 
at  the  Blue  Ridge  Conference,  a  few  weeks  ago,  in 
North  Carolina.  A  boy  had  come  home,  one  raised  in 
the  most  humble  circumstances  there,  and  then  a  little 
over  30  years  of  age.  He  had  gone  away  to  school,  and 
been  transferred  to  a  conference,  who  sent  him  to  a 
church  with  about  $130  a  year.  He  returned  with 
$1,300  pastoral  support  and  additions  to  the  church.  He 
reported  about  once  in  two  weeks  for  recitations  in  the 
school.  The  rest  of  the  time  he  was  going  around 
holding  revival  meetings  and  setting  the  country  on  fire. 
The  bishop  preached  in  the  morning.  Of  course,  they 
wanted  to  hear  the  boy  preach  in  the  afternoon.  The 
church  was  packed   so  you   could  hardly   enter   it.      I 


22  The  Conservation  oj  Our  Moral  Resources 

found  myself  wedged  in  with  the  multitude.  The 
boy  preached.  His  physique  was  so  splendid  I 
could  only  think  of  Saul  among  his  brethren.  He  was 
preaching  about  Saul  out  looking  after  his  Father's  lost 
asses.  (Laughter.)  It  was  a  great  occasion.  It  began 
to  warm  up  gradually.  Something  was  getting  hold  of 
me  along  with  the  rest,  something  defying  analysis.  We 
were  going  into  a  state  of  liquidation  along  with  the  rest 
of  them.  He  kept  straight  on,  and  in  his  preaching  told 
us  this — I  cannot  repeat  it  as  he  said  it.  He  said :  ''I 
remember  when  we  were  living  in  a  little  house,  and 
father  had  come  back  from  the  army,  never  able  to  do 
a  day's  work  since,  and  the  children  were  all  sick.  It 
was  not  like  it  is  now,  when  people  have  a  doctor  and 
two  nurses.  We  were  all  sick.  Little  sister  died  and 
went  to  heaven.  Mother  would  come  to  us  once  in  a- 
while  and  smooth  down  the  cover.  I  heard  mother  talk- 
ing to  somebody,  and  asked,  'Mother,  who  were  you 
talking  to?'  and  she  said,  1  was  talking  with  God,  my 
boy.'  "  He  said,  '*I  hadn't  made  any  public  profession 
then,  but  I  believed  in  God  from  that  moment." 

The  sermon  wound  up  somewhere  about  that  time. 
Everybody  got  around  the  preacher.  It  was  a  place  of 
blessing.  It  was  a  sample  of  what  these  Southern  fel- 
lows are  coming  to  be.  He  said  he  was  going  to  Drew 
Theological  seminary.  I  said  to  somebody,  I  didn't 
know  what  Drew  would  do  with  him  when  he  got  there, 
but  Drew  would  know  that  he  had  arrived.     We  can- 


The  Frontier  23 

not  afford  in  the  development  of  Methodism  to  go  by 
that  one  man,  even.     Those  are  the  men  of  the  future. 

It  was  only  the  other  day  that  I  stood  before  the 
Alabama  conference.  I  had  been  before  them  about  a 
year  previous.  In  pastoral  support  they  get  less  than 
$200  a  year,  with  their  people  scattered  like  sheep  over 
the  mountains.  They  need  all  their  time,  and  more  too, 
to  take  care  of  their  people,  and  they  have  to  work  a 
little  piece  of  land  to  keep  bread  and  butter  in  the 
mouths  of  their  families.  Do  you  think  it  was  a  be- 
draggled, discouraged  looking  lot.  No.  The  spirit  of 
victory  was  with  them.  I  have  not  gotten  over  being 
with  them  and  I  was  there  only  a  day.  It  is  the  kind  of 
Methodism  you  cannot  get  along  without. 

A  week  ago  last  Sunday  I  was  speaking  in  the  First 
Church  of  Chattanooga.  We  took  hold  of  Chattanooga 
with  both  hands.  What  have  you  there?  You  have  the 
splendid  First  Church  of  Chattanooga,  with  a  pastor, 
assistant  pastor  and  700  or  800  members,  with  8  or  9 
other  churches  in  Chattanooga.  If  you  get  far  enough 
away  from  Chattanooga  with  John  Patton,  the  father 
of  the  layman's  movement,  you  will  find  there  is  a 
mighty  influence  that  is  coming  out  of  that  border  con- 
ference. I  think  we  can  make  it  plain  to  you  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  has  a  Kingdom  along  that 
border  country,  and  that  Kingdom  will  never  be  con- 
served unless  we  do  our  part. 


24  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

THE  WEST. 

, Before  you  is  the  map  of  the  United  States.  Here 
you  have  a  line,  cutting  the  United  States  into  two 
equal  parts,  the  97th  Meridian,  that  runs  to  the  gulf. 
Nine-tenths  of  all  the  people  of  this  country  live  east  of 
the  line.  Here,  where  one-tenth  of  the  people  live,  part 
of  the  country  is  a  mile  up  in  the  air.  A  man  who  went 
to  California  for  his  health,  wrote  back,  *'I  am  ten  years 
younger  than  I  was  a  while  ago."  Later  he  wrote, 
**Now  I  am  25  years  younger."  After  a  time  they  did 
not  hear  from  him,  and  somebody  visiting  in  the  east 
was  asked,  "How  is  so  and  so.  The  last  time  we  heard 
he  was  25  years  younger."  The  reply  was,  "Haven't 
you  heard?  He  is  dead."  "What  did  he  die  from?" 
"He  died  of  cholera  infantum."     (Laughter.) 

Yes.  That  elevated  country  is  a  world's  sanitarium. 
Still  it  is  an  arid  country  and  great  stretches,  in  early 
geographies,  were  called  our  "Great  American  Desert." 
Private  capital  pioneered  the  way,  and  the  government 
followed  with  great  irrigation  plants.  Now  this  desert 
is  being  reclaimed  to  make  homes  for  millions.  The 
real  estate  man  there  has  paraphased  our  old  hymn. 

"Little  drops  of  water  on  the  grains  of  sand. 

Make  a  mighty  difference  in  the  price  of  land." 

Another  element  is  the  discovery  of  dry  farming. 
A  certain  western  mule  walked  over  soil  where  corn  had 
been  sown.      It  was  so  dry  no  grain  came  up.     The 


The  Frontier  ^5 

farmer  noticed  where  the  mule  walked,  the  seed  came 
up,  from  the  packing  of  the  soil.  He  got  the  idea  of 
dry  farming.  Great  areas  are  given  over  now  to  dry 
farming  and  are  raising  passable  crops. 

I  have  not  time  to  talk  to  you  about  it  but  there 
has  been  great  improvement  out  there.  A  man  second 
to  Burbank  alone  is  in  the  South  Dakota  agricultural 
college.  We  have  strawberries,  raspberries,  and  cherry 
trees  perfected  to  withstand  freezing  up  to  40  degrees 
below  zero. 

I  heard  a  bishop  tell  the  other  night  that  Burbank 
made  a  recent  discovery,  a  vegetable  called  potoon,  a 
cross  between  the  potato  and  onion,  to  be  planted  on 
desert  soil.  The  onion  so  acts  on  the  eyes  of  the 
potato  as  to  produce  water  enough  to  irrigate  itself.  I 
doubt  it.     (Laughter.) 

In  South  Dakota,  in  a  month,  there  came  100  car 
loads  of  people  into  one  county.  A  great  tide  of  set- 
tlers went  sweeping  into  Montana,  driving  500,000 
cattle  off  those  plains,  never  to  come  back.  Six  thous- 
and homesteaders,  going  into  Montana,  covered  2400 
miles  of  country,  with  not  a  Protestant  preacher  in  the 
whole  region. 

In  Curry  county,  in  southwestern  Oregon,  were  2500 
people,  mostly  Americans.  Until  our  Presbyterian 
friends  went  in  there  was  not  a  single  church,  Protestant 
or  Catholic,  in  the  whole  county. 

You  say,  "Why  don't  you  spend  all  your  money  up 


26  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

there?"  You  would  be  in  the  same  predicament  we  are 
to  make  one  dollar  do  for  two  or  three  dollars.  We  are 
in  a  brown  study  about  it,  and  the  problem  is  to  even 
up  the  situation  properly. 

What  does  it  all  mean?  It  means  this:  If  you 
take  that  country  up  northwest,  where  we  are  looking 
toward  Asia,  we  may  help  to  fulfill  the  purpose  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  make  those  great  lines  of  commerce  just 
what  he  made  the  great  highways  to  Rome.  When  he 
was  lifted  up  on  the  cross,  he  captured  those  mighty 
roads  and  made  them  the  highways  for  his  Gospel.  He 
will  make  that  Pacific  Coast  luminous,  if  we  do  our 
duty,  and  make  it  the  great  highway  to  re-enforce  the 
work  of  Christ  in  Asia. 

The  figures  of  the  increase  of  population  in  these 
western,  northwestern  and  southwestern  regions,  are 
almost  incredible.  The  home  mission  boards  of  the 
Protestant  churches  have  simply  distress  signals  out. 
That  is  all  we  can  do. 

Texas  has  more  miles  of  railroad  than  any  other 
state  in  the  union.  Galveston  with  46,000  inhabitants 
is  the  second  export  city  in  the  United  States,  and  not 
so  very  far  from  the  ditch  called  the  Panama  Canal, 
looking  towards  Asia.  The  southern  states  stand  ready 
to  raise  full  rations  of  all  the  rice  eaten  in  the  world, 
and  all  the  cotton  to  clothe  the  world's  unclad.  Who 
can  tell,  in  five  years,  what  the  tide  of  commerce  is  going 
to  be  through  the  Panama  Canal.     You  will  have  our 


The  Frontier  27 

civilization  impacting  on  the  Asiatic  civilization.  Will  it 
be  a  spiritual  impact?  Methodists  are  determined  on 
the  speedy  evangelization  of  the  west  and  southwest 
as  a  vast  contribution  to  world  salvation. 

The  cities  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America  will 
be  hundreds  of  miles  nearer  to  New  York  City,  than  to 
San  Francisco,  when  the  Panama  Canal  is  completed. 
What  is  to  be  our  impact  on  South  America  in  the  next 
few  years?  The  ends  of  the  earth  are  coming  to  us. 
We  are  a  mighty  city  set  on  the  top  of  a  hill.  We  can- 
not save  ourselves  unless  we  save  these  other  peoples. 
We  ought  not  to  be  saved,  if  we  do  not  do  what  we  can 
to  meet  a  situation  like  that.  We  have  said  it  is  our 
duty  to  send  the  gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
ends  of  the  earth  are  coming  to  us.  We  cannot  leave 
this  to  another  generation.  It  will  be  too  late,  then. 
Whoever  wins  America  wins  world  capitulation.  And 
is  not  God  saying  to  rise  and  shine,  for  Thy  light  is 
come  and  the  Glory  of  the  Lx)rd  is  risen  upon  Thee. 

Music :     "My  country  'tis  of  Thee." 

DR.   COKER. 

Though  it  does  not  seem  long,  about  30  years  ago, 
two  young  men  stood  at  the  bar  of  the  South  Kansas 
conference  in  the  City  of  Ottawa.  We  were  a  class  of 
27  young  fellows,  anxious  that  the  conference  should 
admit  us.  I  was  without  any  particular  certificate  of 
recommendation    or    knowledge,  but  the  good  brother 


28  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

whom  I  am  to  introduce  to  you  soon,  had  a  father  who 
made  name  and  fame  in  the  history  of  that  state,  Dr. 
D.  P.  Mitchell,  one  of  the  mightiest  of  God's  Yeomen 
in  establishing  Methodism  in  the  mighty  state  that  now 
has  prohibition  so  deeply  intrenched  that  we  never  hear 
about  rersubmission^  and  the  man  who  mentioned  it 
would  be  "called  down"  in  any  community.  We  have 
worked  together,  he  here,  there  and  yonder,  I  here,  there 
and  yonder,  but  we  are  together  this  afternoon,  and  it 
gives  my  heart  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  joy  and 
satisfaction  to  present  to  you  my  colleague  in  that  class. 
Dr.  Charles  B.  Mitchell,  pastor  of  St.  James'  Church, 
Chicago,  who  will  speak  to  you,  in  the  continuation  of 
the  study  of  the  Challenge,  as  to  the  City  Problem  of 
America. 


THE  CRY  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY. 

REV.    CHARLES   BAYARD    MITCHELL,    D,    D. 
PASTOR  ST.   JAMES'  CHURCH,   CHICAGO,  ILL. 

The  boldest  challenge  ever  flung  into  the  face  of 
the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  modern  great  city. 
That  same  Jesus  Christ  has  put  out  the  fire  on  every 
Jewish  altar.  He  has  caused  every  Roman  and  Grecian 
idol  to  topple  from  its  pedestal.  He  has  freed  and 
aroused  and  energized  the  human  mind.  He  has  created 
a  new  civilization  which  bears  his  name.  He  has  broken 
down  the  false  philosophies  of  pagans  and  given  to  the 
human  thought  a  new  vision  of  its  possibilities  for  time 
and  for  eternity.  He  has  turned  pagan  Europe  into 
Christian  Europe. 

Christianity  has  won  trophies  on  the  banks  of  the 
Yangste,  Ganges,  Nile,  Niger,  Zambesi,  Rhine,  Rhone, 
Thames  and  Mississippi ;  and  w^herever  it  has  gone  in  any 
land.  All  false  religions  have  disappeared  like  the  mists 
of  the  morning,  and  it  is  no  longer  a  question  as  to  the 
power  of  His  church  to  win  its  way  in  a  new  continent 
It  is  true  that  if  this  hour,  by  some  authoritative  cable- 
gram, every  foreign  missionary  should  be  withdrawn 
before  sunrise  from  China,  there  are  enough  Christians 
on  the  soil  to  keep  the  Gospel  still  going,  and  rejuvenate 


30  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

and  save  the  400  millions  of  Chinese  people.  There 
are  enough  Indian  Christians  in  India  to  keep  the  church 
of  Jesus  Christ  going  there  until  its  300  millions 
have  been  brought  to  the  feet  of  Jesus.  There  is  no 
doubt  as  to  the  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
win  its  way  and  to  hold  its  ground  in  any  country. 
Sometimes  in  the  midst  of  our  abounding  faith  we 
can  almost  hear  the  drum-beats  of  Divine  Providence 
beating  the  reveille  of  the  millenial  morning.  But  I  re- 
peat, that  the  boldest  challenge  that  was  ever  flung  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  modern  city.  There  is 
no  doubt  about  the  ability  of  our  gospel  to  adapt  itself  to 
the  Chinese  mind,  to  the  philosophic  bent  of  the  Hindu, 
and  to  the  Japanese.  We  have  great  churches  on  all  the 
continents;  and  I  have  no  fear  as  to  the  ability  of  my 
Christ  to  establish  His  church  in  any  land. 

Here  is  the  problem :  Is  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ 
adequate,  in  the  20th  century,  to  come  into  the  great 
modern  seething  masses  of  population  congested  in  our 
great  cities,  win  its  way  into  the  hearts  of  these  strange- 
ly engaged  peoples,  comfort  them  and  build  them  into 
the  very  walls  which  shall  become  the  church  of  the 
living  God,  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ?  That  is  the 
problem  that  turns  my  cheek  pale,  every  time  I  walk 
through  the  crowded  streets  of  my  city.  Millions  live 
where  formerly  hundreds  or  thousands  were  un- 
able to  live  together.  Great  cities  of  the  past 
were    plague   spots.       They    were    not     so    great     as 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  31 

now,  because  so  many  could  not  live  together  without 
dying  of  diseases,  plagues,  and  all  sorts  of  evils  making 
for  physical  overthrow.  It  has  been  a  great  problem  to 
make  it  possible  for  millions  of  people  to  live  in  a  small 
territory,  to  furnish  proper  food  and  pure  water,  to 
house  and  care  for  vast  millions.  So  intimately  related 
is  the  problem  of  the  soul  and  of  the  body,  you  have  to 
think  of  such  things  before  you  can  get  far  with  any 
problem  that  has  for  its  object  the  evangelization  of  the 
multitudes.  If  you  don't  look  out,  they  will  die  off 
your  hands  like  rats,  before  you  can  touch  them  with 
the  Gospel,  if  you  have  not  the  proper  physical  condi- 
tions to  keep  them.  Vast  thousands  of  children  are 
growing  rapidly  up  into  maturity,  taking  their  places 
in  our  national  life. 

What  are  we  to  do  to  educate  them,  and  qualify 
them  for  sovereignty,  in  a  democratic  form  of  govern- 
ment? Here  are  these  great  municipal  problems.  How 
are  we  going  to  govern  ourselves?  We  are  still  in  the 
experimental  stage.  The  real  trouble  is,  we  do  not 
know  how  to  run  a  city.  Nobody  does  yet.  It  is  a  new 
thing.  We  are  just  beginning  the  study  of  municipal 
government.  Very  early  in  our  American  history  we 
were  compelled  to  study  national  and  state  government. 
Difficult  problems  grew  out  of  the  relations  between  the 
states  and  the  central  government.  As  law  makers  and 
students  of  politcal  economy,  we  have  been  giving  most 
of  our  time  to  the  study  of  the  laws  that  regulate  the 


3;2  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

states  and  the  Union.  We  have  worked  on  the  problem, 
how  to  relate  the  states  to  the  Union,  for  150  years. 
Sometimes  we  think  we  have  solved  it;  yet  here  is  this 
same  old  thing,  with  a  new  name,  christened  by  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  the  N'ew  Nationalism! 

It  has  been  a  gradual  growth,  growing  out  of  our 
attempts  to  adapt  our  national  form  of  government  to 
the  congregation  of  states.  Some  of  the  problems  have 
been  wrought  out  at  the  cost  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  human  lives  and  seas  of  human  blood.  A  very  lum- 
inous article,  in  the  Outlook,  recently,  attempted  to  out- 
line the  stages  of  that  growth  through  these  hundred 
years^ — how  we  can  relate  the  states  to  the  nation,  how 
institutions  reaching  out  with  great  arms  across  state 
lines  shall  be  regulated,  whether  by  the  state  or  national 
central  government. 

We  are  just  beginning  to  learn  how  to  run  a  city 
government.  What  miserable  failures  we  have  had! 
But  that  is  the  great  problem  to  face  now,  how  to  run 
the  city.  The  trouble  is  that  in  nearly  every 
municipality  the  worst  element  comes  to  the  sur- 
face. In  my  town  the  men  best  capable  are  least 
willing.  Those  who  could  succeed  best,  are  succeeding 
at  their  own  private  business,  and  too  busy  to  attend  to 
civic  problems.  The  men  that  live  by  graft  and  politics, 
are  the  ones  always  in  evidence.  The  ignorant,  illiterate, 
superstitious,  vicious,  are  in  the  front.  They  put  on 
just  as  good  a  face  as  they  can,  to  satisfy  the  demands 


Bishop  Henry  White  Warren,  L.  L.  D.  ^^^I^OP  J"^"  L.  Nuelsen,  LL.  D. 


Bishop   William  A.   Quayle,   LL.  D.  Bishop   Earl  Cranston,  LL.  D. 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  33 

of  respectable  people;  but  underneath  that  surface 
veneer  are  all  the  vicious  elements,  that  make,  not  for 
the  city's  good,  but  for  the  city's  ill;  and  the  ignorant 
and  vicious  are  largely  in  control. 

Some  of  you  recall  Roosevelt's  effort  to  clean  up 
things  in  New  York  city  when  he  was  police  com- 
missioner. He  required  that  those  applying  for  offices 
in  the  police  department  shbuld  pass  some  sort  of  civil 
service  examination.  When  a  company  of  men  applying 
for  responsible  places  in  the  police  department  were 
asked  to  name  five  of  the  New  England  states,  one  man 
replied:  ''England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Whales  and 
Cork."  (Laughter.)  When  asked  to  tell  what  they 
knew  about  Lincoln — listen  ye  citizens :  twenty  of 
them  said,  *'He  was  the  president  of  the  southern 
confederacy."  Forty  said  he  was  a  great  general  in  the 
Union  army.  One  said  he  won  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill.  One  said  he  was  assassinated  by  Garfield,  another 
said  by  Ballington  Booth,  and  many  said  by  Guiteau! 

I  cite  that  to  show  the  type  of  men  not  only  in 
New  York  but  in  Chicago  who  are  most  likely  to  come 
to  the  front  and  be  the  real  rulers  in  our  great  municipal 
centers.  The  worst  lawlessness  centers  there.  Do  you 
know,  we  are  spending  $3,500,000  daily  on  crime  in 
the  United  States?  In  one  recent  year  in  New  York 
City  253  murders  were  committed  and  707  suicides.  In 
my  own  city  last  year  124  men  were  brutally  murdered 
in  cold  blood,  and  yet  in  London,  many  times  its  size, 


34  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

there  were  only  24  murders,  last  year;  in  Paris,  larger 
than  Chicago,  only  15  murders.  In  Germany,  for  every 
100  murders,  98  are  convicted  and  pay  the  full  penalty 
of  the  law ;  in  Spain  65  per  cent ;  but  in  the  United  States 
only  two  out  of  100  ever  feel  the  clutch  of  the  law. 
These  are  things  which  make  your  hair  curl,  if  you  live 
in  Chicago,  and  the  blood  to  curdle  in  your  veins.  I 
am  painting  not  too  dark  a  picture,  but  giving  simply  a 
glimpse  of  the  situation.  You  know  the  causes:  the 
saloon,  the  gambling  hell,  brothel,  dance  hall,  the  cheap 
miserable  theater,  and  the  expensive  one,  which  in  my 
town  is  dirtier  than  the  cheap.  If  you  want  dirt  go 
where  you  pay  $2.50  a  seat.  They  allow  things  in  the 
Auditorium  they  would  hiss  off  the  stage  in  Halsted 
street.  They  call  it  **high  art"  in  the  Auditorium.  The 
illiterate,  criminal,  and  pauper  immigrant  concenter  in 
the  city,  and  with  them  the  causes  for  the  crime  which 
is  there  congested.  How  are  you  going  to  govern  a  city 
with  all  those  influences  at  work?  That  is  the  problem. 
That  is  the  challenge  to  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  the  great 
moral  problem.  Solve  that  and  all  the  others  will  be 
settled.  We  can  solve  it  only  by  employing  three 
agencies,  the  home,  school,  and  church. 

The  public  schools  are  not  what  they  ought  to  be, 
but  were  it  not  for  the  work  done  by  the  average  public 
school  teacher  in  the  United  States,  we  could  not  abide 
as  a  nation  for  a  twelve-month.  We  are  absolutely  de- 
pendent upon  the  faithful  teachers  in  the  public  schools. 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  35 

Without  them  it  would  not  be  long  until  we  would  have 
a  generation  that  would  be  utterly  disqualified  for  free 
government,  and  we  would  go  down  in  ruins.  I  thank 
God  for  the  public  schools,  though  they  are  not  all  they 
ought  to  be.  True,  they  are  "godless,"  so  called  by  the 
class  responsible  for  their  godlessness. 

I  recognize  the  danger  growing  out  of  the  fact 
that  the  foreign  child  educated  in  the  public  school  is 
more  or  less  alienated  from  his  parents.  The  foreigner 
finds  it  difficult  tO'  keep  his  grip  upon  his  child  growing 
up  in  our  cities,  trained  in  our  public  schools  in  the 
spirit  of  freedom,  and  with  a  feeling  of  superiority  over 
his  illiterate  parent,  because  he  can  speak  English  and 
the  father  can  not.  Yet  were  it  not  for  this  great  mill, 
into  which  we  pour  these  thousands  of  youthful  grists, 
and  from  which  comes  the  material  to  constitute  the 
rising  state,  we  would  have  a  sad  future  before  us.  The 
public  school  is  doing  a  mighty  thing,  not  all  that  we 
would  like,  but  still  it  is  a  great  saving  factor. 

The  home  will  help  mightily,  if  good;  and  hurt 
equally,  if  bad.  What  is  the  future  of  the  American 
home  in  the  city?  We  hardly  have  homes  any  more  in 
town.  We  have  flats,  little  congested  quarters  where 
you  have  to  drink  condensed  milk,  and  the  old  fashioned 
hearthstone  is  a  mere  poetical  expression,  meaning  noth- 
ing to  the  rising  generation.  That  home,  to  be  helpful, 
must  have  holy  love,  sacrifice  and  service,  the  three 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian  faith.     Where 


36  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

are  you  going  to  get  them  in  the  modern  city  home? 
In  the  homes  of  the  rich,  there  is  Httle  home  life.  They 
Hve  in  hotels  and  clubs  in  winter  and  migrate  to  the 
country  in  summer.  The  great  unchurched  masses  in 
our  city  are  the  well-to-do,  who  live  in  hotels  and  clubs. 
If  they  have  a  home  it  is  in  the  country  some  where;  and 
who  ever  knew  a  man  that  lived  in  the  country  in  the 
summer  time  to  go  to  church  even  during  the  summer? 

When  you  come  into  the  stratum  of  the  middle 
classes  you  find  that  they  have  to  live  in  flats,  and  have 
not  the  home  such  as  you  and  I  were  brought  up  in; 
nothing  of  real  home  life.  Children  are  discounted. 
Think  of  raising  a  child  under  a  roof  where  there  are 
40  or  100  other  families,  congested  into  small  quarters. 

That  condition  is  not  so  bad  as  you  find  when  you 
enter  the  lowest  stratum.  The  rich  have  no  homes,  the 
middle  class  live  in  flats,  and  the  poor  in  slums.  You  find 
here  the  boys  and  girls  growing  up  in  one  room.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  in  the  way  of  regenerating  and  sav- 
ing the  boy  or  girl  without  being  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  social  condition  that  involves  such  impurity  as  I 
dare  not  hardly  allow  myself  to  think  of  in  this  pre- 
sence— ^boys  and  girls  not  born,  but  damned  into  this 
world,  with  no  chance?  It  looks  dark  when  I  try  to 
think  of  the  influence  of  home  life  upon  the  rising  gen- 
eration in  our  great  cities. 

Then  there  is  the  church,  bringing,  as  I  think,  some 
hope,  and  the  true  solution,  if  its  influences  are  properly 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  37 

applied,  going  to  the  root  of  the  whole  matter.  The 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  a  program  broader  than 
socialism.  SociaHsm  undertakes  to  regenerate  society 
by  improving  social  conditions.  So  does  the  church; 
but  the  church  has  a  broader  program  than  that.  It 
undertakes  to  regenerate  society  by  the  improving  of 
social  conditions,  indirectly.  Its  primary  aim  is  the 
salvation  of  the  individual,  at  the  same  time  im- 
proving social  conditions.  It  is  a  social  program,  but 
it  is  a  salvation  program.  There  is  the  difference.  We 
have  in  our  modern  times  social  reformers,  doing  a 
splendid  work.  I  do  not  wish  to  minify  their  work. 
The  Social  Service  Conference  was  held  in  our  city  last 
week.  They  have  a  good  program  and  are  doing 
things.  They  are  not  attempting  to  do  everything, 
but  they  are  attempting  to  do  something,  some  work, 
along  social-service  lines.  Those  are  things  which  are 
important.  One  set  of  men  cannot  do  everything,  just 
as  one  man  cannot  have  everything.  Senator  Ingalls 
was  as  long  as  a  bean  pole  and  as  wide  as  a  match.  I 
asked  him,  "Why  don't  you  have  some  flesh  on  your 
bones?"  He  replied,  "O,  Mitchell,  one  man  can't  have 
everything."  So  you  must  not  expect  one  institution  to 
do  everything.  They  have  a  good  program.  My  quarrel 
is  not  with  my  own  Christian  brethren,  who  are  at- 
tempting to  do  something  of  that  sort  in  a  Christian 
spirit,  but  my  quarrel  is  with  the  modern  so-called  social 
reformer,  who  thinks  all  you  need  to  do  is  to  give  a  man 


38  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

a  better  house,  and  he  will  get  a  better  heart.  That  has 
not  been  my  observation.  Give  a  man  a  better  heart  and 
he  will  find  a  better  home.  My  observation  in  Chicago  is 
that  all  the  people  who  live  in  Drexel  Boulevard,  in 
magnificent  houses,  are  not  wholly  sanctified. 

The  trouble  is,  they  assume  that  if  men  have  better 
physical  conditions;  after  you  have  given  every  man 
plenty  to  eat,  good  clothes  to  wear,  and  a  good  house, 
the  millenium  is  at  hand.  In  Chicago  a  lot  of  folks 
who  have  all  those  physical  comforts  are  poor  and 
miserable  and  lost.  The  most  lost  and  hopeless  people 
I  find  in  my  walks  in  the  city  are  the  rich,  to  whom  no 
one  ever  speaks  of  the  soul,  and  who  go  their  way  un- 
checked, "whose  god  is  their  belly,''  and  who  live  only 
for  the  gratification  of  physical  sensations.  They  are  not 
happy.  Christ  says  "How  scarcely  shall  a  rich  man 
enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  Now,  the  Christian 
church  faces  that  awful  situation  in  the  city.  What  is 
it  going  to  do?  It  has  three  great  laws,  love,  sacrifice 
and  service.  Now,  how  is  it  going  to  apply  the  gospel 
to  the  needs  of  that  kind  of  folk?  The  great  difficulty 
is  to  get  their  attention,  to  get  them  to  think  long  enough 
to  pay  any  attention  to  you.  It  takes  a  brass  band;  it 
takes  some  such  movement  as  we  had  recently  in  Chi- 
cago, to  attract  the  attention  of  the  people  at  all.  Take 
a  great  city  like  ours,  and  if  some  such  concerted  effort 
had  not  been  put  forth,  you  could  not  have  shaken  that 
town  at  all.     Thank  God   for  what  has  been  accom- 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  39 

plished — not  all  that  we  might  desire,  but  the  newspapers 
have  been  compelled  to  give  full  reports  of  what  the 
church  has  been  doing  in  these  recent  weeks.  Night 
after  night  in  great  central  meetings,  from  six  to  eight 
thousand  people  have  been  listening  to  the  gospel 
preached  in  its  purity  with  absolute  allegiance  to  the  doc- 
trine of  Jesus  and  the  authority  of  the  word  of  God. 
Ministers  of  our  town  have  caught  a  new  note.  Those 
who  have  hitherto  talked  about  the  gospel  are  now 
preaching  it.  It  has  become  popular  to  try  at  least  to 
make  some  self-respecting  effort  to  win  souls  for  Christ ; 
and  emphasis  is  put  upon  individual  salvation,  rather 
than  mere  programs  of  social  service  and  entertainment, 
and  such  things  not  vital  or  effective  for  such  an  awful 
problem  as  we  face  in  our  cities.  The  trouble  is  to 
get  the  people's  attention.  The  well-to-do  are  absorbed 
in  their  social  and  business  affairs.  I  asked  a  man  why 
he  was  not  at  church  Sunday  morning ;  a  splendid  fellow, 
a  big-hearted  fine  business  man.  He  said  "I  intended  to 
be  at  church  yesterday  morning  but  I  had  to  go  to  my 
office  for  my  mail,  as  I  had  a  very  important  business 
matter.  I  spent  the  morning  at  my  office."  That  was 
enough — ^business!  Why,  that  was  the  final  and  all 
sufficient  argument.  When  a  man  tells  you  his  business 
demands  attention  Sunday,  what  are  you  going  to  say? 
Isn't  that  enough? 

Yesterday  I  was  talking  with  a  fine  family  in  my 
church,  and  said,   *'You  told  me  you  were  coming  to 


40  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

church  Sunday  night."  "O,  we  were  really  intending 
to,  but  some  social  friends  came,  so  we  had  to  stay  home 
with  them."  Social  excuse — what  can  you  say!  Of 
course,  if  folks  come  in  Sunday  to  dinner  and  spend 
the  evening,  you  are  not  expected  to  go  to  church.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  Why  not  invite  them  to 
church  with  you?  "O,  we  never  thought  of  that!"  With 
that  class,  you  will  find  in  a  great  congested  center  like 
Chicago,  there  are  so  many  social  demands,  professional 
and  business  demands,  that  the  difficulty  is  to  get  their 
attention.  Try  to  hold  night  meetings  as  we  have,  for 
three  weeks,  in  my  church.  I  said,  I  am  going  to  go 
through  with  it,  anyway,  and  let  the  people  know  I 
believe  in  it,  whether  they  do  or  not.  So  night  after 
night  for  three  weeks,  I  pleaded  with  people  to  come 
to  church.  I  visited  them,  wrote  them  letters  and  postal 
cards.  I  sent  50  women  out,  in  our  community,  to  get 
after  the  people  and  still  they  would  not  come.  We 
would  have  a  little  handful,  one  hundred  and  fifty  or 
two  hundred.  The  difficulty  is  to  get  the  well-to-do  to 
stop  long  enough  from  social  or  business  pursuits  to 
think  about  their  souls. 

Take  the  other  stratum,  the  poor.  So  tremendous 
is  the  bread  and  butter-battle,  and  the  difficulty  to  keep 
their  souls  in  their  bodies,  that  they  have  little  thought 
for  their  souls.  On  Saturday  I  was  in  a  poor  home, 
near  the  stock-yards,  to  see  a  poor  woman,  and  I  would 
have  considered    it   an   impertinence  upon  my   part   to 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  41 

have  talked  to  her  about  her  soul.  As  she  held  to  her 
bosom  a  little  babe  six  months  old,  crying  with  hunger, 
and  the  mother's  breasts  dried  up  for  lack  of  proper 
aiourishment,  why  should  I  talk  to  her  about  her  soul 
until  I  assured  her  at  least  she  was  to  have  coal  enough 
for  the  month  and  $5  worth  of  groceries,  and  that  a 
quart  of  fresh  milk  should  come  to  the  house  every  day 
for  the  next  month?  You  could  not  dare  speak  about 
her  soul  until  you  got  that  part  done.  I  got  a  letter 
from  an  Irish  woman  before  I  started  this  morning  to 
the  train.  "My  dear  Riverend  Father:  My  priest 
cares  for  my  soul  but  I  must  call  on  you,  my  dear  Protes- 
tant father,  to  send  me  some  coal  to  keep  me  children 
from  freezing.  Won't  you  please  send  me  a  ton  of 
coal?"  You  cannot  expect  people  who  just  live  a  few 
hours  from  the  edge  of  starvation  to  have  very  much 
time  to  give  to  the  interests  of  their  souls.  They  are  so 
crushed  that  all  aspiration  and  hope  are  gone  out  of 
them.  We  have  literally  thousands  and  thousands  in  our 
great  cities  that  are  only  twenty-four  hours  from  abso- 
lute want  and  suffering.  How  are  you  going  to  get  their 
attention?  What  are  you  going  to  do  to  win  them  and 
save  them  for  Christ  and  to  themselves?  Here  are 
right  in  our  city;  100,000  Poles;  I  don't  know  how  many 
Croatians,  Lithuanians  and  Slavs,  Italians,  and  Rus- 
sians— all  classes  and  conditions  of  people,  who  have 
come  out  from  Europe,  and  are  crowded  into  our  city; 
so  vast  in  number,  that  ninety  per  cent  of  our  nearly 


42  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

three  millions  hardly  speak  our  tongue.  They  are  either 
foreign-born  or  of  foreign  parentage.  You  can  ride 
f«  >r  an  hour  on  a  street-car  in  Chicago  and  hardly  see  an 
American  or  English  sign.  We  have  daily  newspapers 
in  thirty  different  languages.  We  have  whole  communi- 
ties which  year  in  and  year  out,  never  hear  a  word  of  any 
other  language  than  their  own,  a  foreign  tongue.  They 
have  their  own  stores  and  churches  if  they  attend  any 
churches  at  all.  They  have  their  own  trades,  mingle 
together,  and  we  do  not  touch  the  fringe  of  them.  They 
are  growing  up  in  our  great  city,  and  we  are  within  a 
half  hour's  ride,  a  five  cent  fare,  of  a  foreign  missionary 
field. 

I  will  repeat,  that  the  modern  city  is  the  boldest 
challenge  ever  flung  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  That 
looks  like  a  pretty  dark  picture.  Conditions  like  that 
have  confronted,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  the  good 
folk  of  our  race  for  centuries.  Something  of  that  awful 
want  and  crying  need  was  heard  by  Confucius,  stirred 
the  soul  of  Gautama,  burned  in  the  breast  of  Moham- 
med, and  of  Zoroaster.  I  stand  here  today  and  fling  back 
into  the  faces  of  those  good  men  of  other  countries  and 
other  days,  who  tried  to  solve  this  problem  and  failed — 
"You  did  the  best  you  could,  but  I  tell  you  *there  is 
only  one  name  under  Heaven,  whereby  man  can  be  saved 
and  that  is  in  the  name  of  the  only  begotten,  Jesus 
Christ.'  "  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  power  of  that  Name 
to  transform  a  city  like  Chicago  into  one  like  the  New 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  *  43 

Jerusalem,  lit  as  above,  from  Heaven.  The  gospel  is 
adequate.  The  church  is  equal  to  it,  if  she  will  go 
about  her  task  as  though  she  believed  in  it,  and  if  the 
awful  condition  would  grip  the  hearts  of  men  and 
women,  and  we  could  ever  set  our  forces  into  action  for 
the  salvation  of  those  about  us,  we  could  woo  and  we 
could  win  them. 

Some  time  ago  I  was  near  Olivet,  and  as  we  came 
around  over  the  shoulder  of  Olivet,  my  companion  said, 
"Just  stop  a  bit;  this  is  the  traditional  site  where  it  is 
said,  Jesus  stopped  and  looked  out  over  the  city  yonder 
and  wept  over  it."  I  got  down  from  my  horse,  put  my 
arm  through  the  bridle-rein  and  took  out  my  pocket 
Testament.  Looking  out  over  the  beautiful  city,  as  it  is 
yet,  far  more  beautiful  in  the  distance  than  near  at  hand, 
I  read  how  Jesus  stood  t)(iere  and  cried  JDut:  "Oh 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  oft  would  I  have  gathered 
thee  together  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her 
wings,  but  ye  would  not.  Behold,  your  house  is  left 
unto  you  desolate.'* 

He  looked  there  and  saw  what  was  the  great  cry 
of  that  city.  It  had  its  towers  and  minarets,  its  splendid 
temples.  It  looked  like  a  fair,  rich  city,  but  Jesus  saw 
that  underneath  all  its  apparent  wealth  and  material 
prosperity,  there  were  sin  and  crime,  and  he  wept.  Don't 
you  suppose  that  he  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever  ? 

I  wonder  if  he  does  not,  yet,  weep  somewhere,  over 


44  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

some  modern  Chicago  like  he  did  over  ancient  Jerusa- 
lem! I  must  confess  to  you,  when  I  climbed  the 
hill  west  of  Damascus,  and  looked  out  over  the 
oldest  city  of  the  world,  looking,  as  one  has  said, 
like  a  pearl  in  a  cup  of  emerald;  when  I  climbed  the 
bell-tower  at  Moscow,  and  looked  out  over  that  wonder- 
ful city  with  its  thousands  of  bell-towers  and  domes; 
and  when  I  climbed  St.  Isaac's,  and  looked  out  over  St. 
Petersburg;  climbed  St.  Paul's,  and  looked  out  over 
London  and  the  Eiffel  tower  and  looked  out  over 
Paris,  and  then  looked  put  over  the  cities  of  America, 
with  a  bird's  eye  view — I  am  frank  to  say  I  only  had 
the  man's  eye-view  and  not  the  Christ's  eye-view — I  had 
no  tears  to  shed!  We  can  look  through  those  streets, 
and  know  we  have  a  remedy  that  can  heal  all  sorrows, 
wipe  all  tears  away,  convert  hovels  into  homes,  and 
brutes  into  the  children  of  God.  Ought  we  not  to  weep, 
rather  than  rejoice,  at  the  conditions  that  exist,  and 
ought  we  not  give  ourselves,  with  consecration,  to  the 
task  of  applying  the  remedy  to  improve  these  great 
centers!  It  is  a  challenge  to  all  who  believe  we  have  a 
gospel  which  can  do  it. 

It  is  a  challenge  to  all  who  believe  we  have  a  gos- 
pel, and  can  do  it. 

Week  before  last,  I  was  called  to  see  a  man  on 
Cottage  Grove  avenue,  who  had  an  awful  tragedy  in 
his  life.  He  had  only  one  boy,  twelve  years  of  age,  who 
had  been  playing  with  a  gun,  which  he  thought  was  un- 


The  Cry  of  the  Great  City  45 

loaded,  and  blew  the  top  of  his  head  off.  The  boy  was  a 
beautiful  child,  and  the  wife  went  raving  mad.  He  was  a 
livery  stable  man,  with  a  little  cottage  attached  to  his 
place  of  business.  When  I  went  over  to  see  him,  as  soon 
as  he  saw  me — a  friend  told  him  I  was  coming  to  see  if  I 
could  not  say  something  to  give  him  some  hope — he  took 
me  to  a  little  office  where  we  sat  down,  and  shut  the  door, 
and  locked  it.  We  sat  facing  each  other.  He  w^as 
shrewd  enough  to  place  me  so  I  faced  the  light  of  the 
only  window.  He  had  his  face  in  the  shadow.  I  was 
looking  towards  him,  with  the  light  falling  on  my 
face.  He  put  his  hand  on  my  knee  and  said, 
"Mitchell,  what  can  you  say  to  me?"  Then  I  tried 
to  comfort  him.  I  tried  the  best  I  knew,  as  a  Christian 
minister,  believing  in  that  Book,  to  tell  him  some  of  the 
things  that  would  give  him  hope.  I  tried  to  show  him 
that  what  he  knew  not  now  he  would  know  hereafter; 
that  God's  grace  could  sustain  him ;  that  he  had  not 
wholly  lost  his  only  child,  but  would  gain  him  again. 
When  I  said  that,  he  clenched  my  knee  until  it  seemed  as 
though  in  a  vise.  He  said,  ''Mitchell,  look  me  in  the 
eye."  I  looked  him  square  in  the  face.  "None  of  that 
cant;  none  of  that  preacher-business;  tell  me,  Mitchell, 
as  a  man  and  a  Mason ;  tell  me  now,  honest,  do  you  be- 
lieve that?  Do  you  believe  it?"  Without  flinching  I 
looked  him  back  squarely  in  the  eye  and  said :  "I  do  be- 
lieve it!  and  if  I  did  not,  I  would  quit  preaching  this 
day.     Of  course  I  believe  it.     I  risk  my  eternal  soul  on 


46  .    The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

it."  He  hid  his  head  in  his  arms  and  cried  like  a  baby. 
He  said,  "Mitchell,  pray  for  me,  that  I  may  believe  it, 
too."  O,  brethren  of  the  ministry,  do  we  believe  it? 
I  think  the  trouble  with  most  of  our  failures  in  the  city 
is  that  we  preach  as  though  we  hardly  believed  it.  We 
assume  a  kind  of  apologetic  attitude,  and  go  at  it  in  a 
half-hearted  way,  and  men  are  not  believing  that  we  our- 
selves are  risking  our  eternal  souls  on  it.  I  believe  in  it, 
brethren;  do  you?  And  beheving  in  it.  I  am  willing  to 
apply  this  gospel  test  to  the  great  city,  and  I  am  willing, 
as  a  representative  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  an- 
swer this  challenge  of  the  city.  I  am  willing,  with  that 
Book  and  with  my  Christ,  to  go  into  any  city  and  under- 
take to  meet  the  challenge,  to  answer  the  cry,  and  to 
supply  the  need.  It  will  supply  all  their  need,  according 
to  the  riches  of  grace  in  Christ  Jesus,  our  Lord. 


THE  WINNING  OF  THE  WEST. 

BY     REV.      W.      E.      DOUGHTY,      EDUCATIONAL      SECRETARY 
laymen's    missionary    MOVEMENT. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  Christ  died  with  his  face 
turned  westward.  Who  knows  but  that  our  Lord,  in 
His  passion  for  world  supremacy,  looked  across  centu- 
ries and  civilization,  and  saw  the  time  when  there  should 
arise  a  new  nation  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  to  fight  val- 
iantly for  His  Kingdom?  Whether  this  be  true  or  not, 
I  find  my  own  heart  steadied  and  strengthened  as  I  re- 
member that  the  same  Christ  looks  today  into  our  up- 
turned faces  and  expects  the  men  of  the  West  to  do  their 
full  share  in  the  work  of  redeeming  His  world. 

Shall  we  not  then  together,  today,  face  westward 
with  Christ  and  see  what  that  West  is  of  which  we  have 
heard  so  much,  and  of  which  all  of  us  are  a  part?  I 
know  of  no  better  way  to  express  it  than  to  say  that  the 
West  is  an  eye — an  eye  horizoned  by  prairies  and  moun- 
tains and  the  world's  greatest  sea.  The  West  is  an  eye 
that  sees  to  the  heart  of  national  and  international  is- 
sues. It  pierces  through  sham  and  fraud,  and  is  satis- 
fied only  as  it  looks  upon  the  uttermost  parts. 

But  the  West  is  not  only  an  eye;  it  is  an  arm,  full 


48  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

of  strength,  throbbing  with  the  virility  of  a  new  civili- 
zation. This  ami  reaches  far;  it  is  stretched  out  in 
sympathy  to  the  distressed  and  the  needy;  it  touches 
the  commerce  and  finance  of  the  world.  It  is  an  ann 
that  builds  transcontinental  railroads  and  conquers  the 
desert,  and  stops  not  at  baffling  mountain  difficulties. 

But  the  West  is  not  only  an  eye  and  an  arm,  but  a 
voice  which  is  calling  aloud  in  sternness  and  strength. 
It  is  a  voice  with  an  appeal  for  an  understanding  of  its 
pnoblems,  for  statesmanship  in  developing  and  using 
its  resources.  It  is  a  cry  for  courage  and  love  and  life 
and  healing  and  the  living  Christ.  On  a  Massachusetts 
battlefield  there  was  a  shot  once  that  was  heard  around 
the  world.  Today,  there  is  a  voice  heard  around  the 
world.     It  is  the  voice  of  the  West. 

But  the  West  is  also  a  heart — a  heart  that  beats 
high  with  life;  that  burns  with  the  elemental  passions! 
This  heart  is  a  palace  of  golden  dreams — dreams  which 
are  being  translated  into  reality  in  government,  in  edu- 
cation, in  religion. 

But  the  West  is  not  only  an  eye,  and  a  voice,  and 
an  arm,  and  a  heart,  but  the  West  is'  a  brain.  Here  are 
nerve  centers  of  civilization.  Here  are  springing  up  as 
by  magic  schools  and  colleges,  science  and  art.  Here 
are  being  developed  captains  of  commerce,  princes  of 
finance,  so  that  when  eastern  railroads  want  new  presi- 
dents they  often  come  west  to  get  them.  So,  too,  the 
Methodist   colleges    farthest    east   have    sitting  in   their 


The  Winning  of  the  West  49 

president's  chair  men  who  were  reared  upon  the  prai- 
ries. Wesleyan  University  took  ShankHn  from  an  Iowa 
college,  but  he  was  born  and  reared  in  the  prairie  state 
of  Kansas.  And  w^hen  Boston — conservative,  cultured 
Boston — wanted  a  new  president,  she  did  not  take  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  or  Wesleyan,  reared  in  the  seclu- 
sion of  eastern  classic  halls,  but  a  man  who  for  the 
last  seventeen  years  has  been  the  president  of  Baker 
University.  Dr.  Murlin  has  grown  up  on  the  prairies, 
but  breathes  the  air  of  the  world.  Surely,  the  words 
of  O'Shaughnessey  apply  to  the  West : 

''We  are  the  music-makers; 
We  are  the  dreamers  of  dreams; 
Wand'ring  by  lone   sea-breakers. 
And  sitting  by  desolate  streams. 
World  losers  and  world  forsakers. 
On  whom  the  pale  moon  gleams. 

"Yet,  we're  the  mavers  and  shakers 
Of  the  world,  forever,  it  seems. 
One  man  w-ith  a  dream  at  pleasure 
Shall  go  forth  and  conquer  a  crown, 
And  two  with  a  new  song's  measure 
Can  trample  a  kingdom  down." 

In  short,  the  West  is  a  giant,  and  nothing  less  than 
a  princely  offering  w^ill  win  this  giant  to  Christ.  But 
when  the  West  is  won,  the  impact  upon  the  non-Chris- 


50  The  Consefvation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

tian  world  will  be  tremendous.     I  desire  to  state  four 
propositions  regarding  the  winning  of  the  West: 

I.  Nothing  less  than  a  princely  offering  of  money 
and  men  and  prayer  can  ever  win  the  West  because  of 
its  size  and  resources. 

The  kind  of  men  we  want  committed  to  the  task 
of  winning  the  West  are  not  caught  by  littleness  and  do 
not  respond  to  a  limited  appeal.  He  who  would  cap- 
ture the  West  'must  worship  the  difficult.  Look  at  the 
size  of  it.  Take  Alaska;  it  is  one-seventh  as  large  as 
Europe,  one-sixth  as  large  as  the  United  States.  Out 
of  it  you  .could  carve  seven  states  the  size  of  Kansas 
and  two  the  size  of  New  Jersey,  and  still  have  some  ter- 
ritory left.  If  you  study  our  country  you  will  discover 
that  only  three  states  west  of  the  Mississippi  are  as 
small  as  all  New  England.  Arizona  is  a  little  larger 
than  Italy  with  its  thirty-two  millions  of  people,  and 
only  a  little  smaller  than  Great  Britain.  If  you  take 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico  together,  it  is  as  far  across 
them  as  it  is  from  Boston  to  Chicago.  California  is 
twice  as  large  as  Korea,  in  which  today  are  twelve  mil- 
lions of  people.  California  is  as  large  as  France. 
France  has  more  than  thirty-eight  millions  of  popula- 
tion; California  has  less  than  three  millions,  and  yet 
California  can  support  as  large  a  population  as  France. 
If  Montana  were  put  down  on  the  map  at  our  Atlantic 
seaboard,  she  would  reach  from  Boston  across  New 
England  and  New  York  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  from 


The  Winning  of  the  West  51 

north  to  south,  from  Boston  to  Raleigh,  North  Caro- 
lina. Texas  is  five  times  as  big  as  Illinois  and  has  more 
railroad  mileage  than  any  other  state  in  the  Union. 
Texas  is  developing  in  a  wonderful  way.  Just  recently 
one  man  has  given  eight  millions  of  dollars  to  establish 
a  technical  school  there.  If  France  were  an  island  and 
Texas  a  sea,  and  the  island  were  in  the  midst  of  the 
sea,  and  you  were  on  the  island,  you  would  be  out  of 
sight  of  land  in  every  direction  in  Texas.  If  all  the 
people  in  the  world,  counting  the  population  of  the  world 
as  fifteen  hundred  millions,  were  in  the  State  of  Texas, 
not  a  man,  woman  or  child  anywhere  else  in  the  world, 
there  would  be  only  eight  to  the  acre! 

No  one  has  yet  been  able  to  compute  the  resources 
of  this  vast  West,  but  we  are  beginning  to  realize  what 
a  gift  of  God  its  riches  are.  The  greatest  appeal  for 
home  missions  is  not  any  statement  of  destitution.  The 
pity  is  that  in  a  great  cause  like  ours,  the  effectiveness 
of  the  appeal  often  depends  upon  the  pitiful  story  of 
suffering  and  destitution  that  is  told.  There  is  weak- 
ness and  need  enough — no  question  about  that — but  the 
highest  missionary  appeal  is  not  any  statement  of  desti- 
tution. The  loudest  summons  to  home  missions  is  the 
appeal  of  a  great  future,  the  call  of  limitless  resources. 
If  we  can  leaven  the  thinking  of  American  Christianity 
with  the  conviction  that  one  of  our  greatest  achieve- 
ments will  be  to  lay  hold  of  and  release  the  power  of 
the  riches  and  resources  of  America  for  the  Kingdom 


52  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

of  God,  we  will  have  made  a  great  contribution  to  the 
redemption  of  the  world.  I  need  mention  but  a  few 
of  the  material  resources  of  the  West  to  show  how  lim- 
itless are  its  possibilities. 

It  is  said  by  experts  that  Texas  could  raise  one- 
fifth  more  cotton  than  is  now  grown  in  all  the  world. 
We  now  supply  more  than  one-half  of  the  cotton  of  the 
world.  It  is  also  said  that  Texas  and  Louisiana  are 
so  well  suited  in  soil  and  climate  to  the  raising  of  rice 
that  those  two  states  could  supply  the  rice  markets  of 
the  earth.  So  wonderful  are  the  agricultural  resources 
of  our  country  that  it  is  hard  to  comprehend,  even  re- 
motely, the  value  of  a  single  year's  harvests.  It  is 
said  that  if  the  products  of  the  farms  of  the  United 
States  last  year  were  put  into  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces, 
they  would  make  a  pile  seven  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
high;  and  if  laid  on  the  earth,  side  by  side,  would  make 
a  line  of  gold  across  Alaska,  Canada,  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  there 
would  then  be  enough  left  so  that  we  could  begin  at  New 
York  and  run  a  line  of  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces  across 
the  plains  to  the  Mississippi,  a  cross  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  San  Francisco,  and  some  of  them  would  fall  off 
into  the  Pacific  Ocean  before  we  got  through.  The 
fact  is  that  we  can  raise  wheat  enough  to  feed  the  world, 
cotton  and  wool  enough  to  clothe  the  world.  We  have 
forests  enough  to  build  houses  for  the  world,  coal 
enough  to  run  the  furnaces  of  the  world,  money  enough 


The  Winning  of  the  West  53 

to  finance  the  world.     In  all  this  the  West  is  doing  her 
full  share. 

11.  Nothing  less  than  a  princely  offering  of  money 
and  men  and  prayer  can  zmn  the  West  to  Christ  because 
of  the  character  of  her  men. 

There  is  a  rich,  riotous  life  going  to  waste  in  this 
western  land,  and  nothing  but  the  manliness  of  Christ 
can  subdue  and  purify  this  life.  Men  of  the  type  de- 
lineated in  "The  Virginian"  can  be  captured  only  by 
strong  men  who  have  the  Apostolic  vision  and  the  heart 
of  fire. 

Our  hearts  have  often  been  thrilled  as  we  have 
studied  the  history  of  the  men  and  women  who  have 
given  their  all  for  the  winning  of  the  West.  I  think 
of  that  graduate  of  Yale  who  left  great  possibilities  in 
the  East  for  a  salary  of  $500  a  year  that  he  might 
bring  the  message  of  the  living  Christ  to  a  stragetic 
frontier  town.  He  is  a  spiritual  prince  out  there  now 
with  a  thrilling  grip  on  the  great  city  that  has  grown 
up  around  his  church.  A  young  couple  with  an  income 
of  several  thousands  of  dollars  a  year  made  their  bridal 
journey  into  the  rawest  kind  of  a  frontier,  where  they 
began  their  work  for  Christ  with  a  salary  of  $300  a 
year.  I  think  of  another,  a  machinist,  with  a  splendid 
salary,  who  saw  an  opportunity  to  serve  the  Kingdom, 
and  who  turned  his  back  upon  the  allurements  of  the 
Eastern  industrial  centers  and  gave  his  life  to  the  West. 
One  of  our  District   Superintendents,   who  is  building 


54  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  future  of  an  empire,  received  $400  salary  last  year. 
How  our  hearts  rejoice  when  we  read  that  during  the 
year  Texas  seceded  from  Mexico,  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference appointed  a  man  by  the  name  of  Stevenson  a 
missionary  to  Texas!  What  an  inspiration  to  the  chil- 
dren and  youth  of  our  time  to  hear  about  that  Kansas 
frontiersman  who  penetrated  to  the  borders  and  lay 
down  to  die,  worn  out  with  his  toil.  A  companion  who 
was  with  him  said,  'T  suppose  you  would  like  to  be 
taken  back  to  the  East  for  burial?"  But  his  reply  was 
worthy  of  the  pioneer  of  the  Gospel:  "No,  bury  me 
here,  that  I  may  serve  notice  on  the  devil  that  at  least 
six  feet  of  Kansas  soil  are  taken  up  for  God."  The 
first  train  that  went  into  Oklahoma  carried  a  Methodist 
preacher,  and  the  moment  the  train  stopped  he  staked 
out  a  corner  lot  and  began  to  build  a  Methodist  church 
with  the  $170  which  he  had  collected  from  his  fellow- 
passengers  on  the  journey  down.  When  I  think  back 
over  the  years  of  the  men  who  have  given  their  lives 
for  the  frontier,  I  feel  how  worthy  they  were  of  a  place 
beside  the  greatest  saints  and  statesmen  of  the  earth. 
Think  of  John  Eliot,  a  missionary  to  the  Indians  when 
New  England  was  the  frontier  of  Europe.  He  was 
sixty  years  a  pastor.  His  most  famous  saying  was, 
"Prayer  and  pains,  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  will 
do  anything."  That  sentence  was  worth  a  lifetime  of 
toil.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Cambridge.  He  wrote  the 
first  book  published  in  America,  and  when  he  died  he 


The  Winning^  of  the  West  55 

left  behind  thirty-six  hundred  Christian  Indians  with 
twenty-four  native  preachers  caring  for  them — a  man 
of  whom  Southey,  the  poet,  says :  "He  was  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  men  of  any  country.'  Think  of 
David  Brainerd,  that  man  of  prayer  who  died  at  the 
hOxTie  of  Jonathan  Edwards  when  he  was  scarcely  thirty, 
and  of  whose  prayer  life  Edwards  says:  "Among  all 
the  days  he  spent  in  secret  prayer  and  fasting,  of  which 
he  gives  an  account  in  his  diary,  there  is  scarcely  an  in- 
stance of  one  which  was  not  either  accompanied  or  soon 
followed  with  apparent  success,  and  a  remarkable  bless- 
ing in  special  influences  and  consolations  of  God's 
spirit,  and  very  often  before  the  day  ended."  Every 
Methodist  ought  to  know  the  story  of  Jason  Lee  and 
that  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  days'  journey  across 
the  continent,  when  there  were  no  transcontinental  rail- 
roads and  no  trails  that  a  white  man  had  ever  followed. 
The  leaves  f  rOxH  his  diary  read  like  a  bit  out  of  the  rec- 
ord of  the  life  of  David  Livingston  or  a  William  Carey. 
Every  boy  in  our  Sunday  schools  ought  to  know  the 
thrilling  story  of  Marcus  Whitman's  ride  from  Oregon 
to  Washington,  that  he  might  interview  the  President 
and  Secretary  of  State  regarding  the  Oregon  country, 
and  when  some  reproved  him  for  his  intense  interest  in 
the  political  movements  of  the  time,  he  said:  "I  was  a 
man  before  I  became  a  missionary,  and  when  I  did  be- 
come a  missionary  I  did  not  expatriate  myself.  I  will 
go  to  Washington,  even  though  I  have  to  resign  my 
place  in  this  mission." 


56  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

The  wo/nen,  too,  have  had  their  full  share  in  re- 
deeming the  frontier  from  savagery  and  sin.  One  never 
can  forget  that  scene  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  at 
Angelica,  N.  Y.,  when  Whitman  and  his  bride  stood 
before  the  altar  to  be  married  on  the  eve  of  their  de- 
parture for  Oregon.  After  the  ceremony  the  pastor  an- 
nounced the  hymn : 

"Yes,  my  native  land,  I  love  thee, 

All  thy  scenes  I  love  them  well, 

Friends,  connections,  happy  country, 

Can  I  bid  you  all  farewell? 

Can  I  leave  you. 

Far  in  heathen  lands  to  dwell?" 

Here  as  they  began  to  sing  and  the  audience  realized 
the  meaning  of  it  all  to  the  young  bride  who  stood  before 
the  altar,  one  by  one  the  voices  w^ere  choked  and  sobs 
stopped  the  singing,  until  there  was  but  one  clear  so- 
prano voice  ringing  out  its  message.  Without  a  tremor, 
Mrs.  Whitman  sang  the  hymn  through  to  the  end. 

It  is  for  the  sake  of  men  and  women  like  these, 
and  in  their  name,  that  we  appeal  to  you  for  princely 
offerings  of  money  and  men  and  prayer  to  carry  on  the 
work  that  they  so  magnificently  began. 

III.  Nothing  less  than  a  princely  offering  of 
money,  men  and  prayer  can  zmn  the  West  because  of  its 
unoccupied  opportunities. 


The  Winning  of  the  West  57 

The  fact  that  there  is  much  to  be  done  in  the  way 
of  bringing  the  Gospel  message  to  the  West,  is  indi- 
cated in  a  recent  conversation  with  one  of  the  Secre- 
taries of  our  Board  of  Sunday  Schools.  He  said  that 
he  had  just  made  an  investigation  of  the  tier  of  states 
beginning  with  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  through  the 
Dakotas  out  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  He  says  that  in  these 
he  found  that  there  were  12,000  day-school  districts 
in  which  there  wxre  not  a  Protestant  Sunday  school  of 
any  denomination.  He  found  a  family  which  had  lived 
thirteen  years  in  a  town  of  several  hundred  people. 
The  oldest  child  of  twelve  years  had  never  heard  a  ser- 
mon or  been  in  a  Sunday  school.  The  mother  had  lived 
there  twenty-one  years,  and  the  only  serxnon  she  had 
heard  preached  in  the  town  w^as  sixteen  years  before, 
and  there  had  never  been  a  Sunday  school  in  all  the 
twenty-one  years. 

In  the  territory  occupied  by  the  New  Mexico  Mis- 
sion of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  according  to 
a  recent  investigation,  of  five  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
towns  only  seventy-five  had  Protestant  churches.  In, 
Arizona,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  one  or- 
dained missionary  to  every  twenty-three  thousand  of 
the  population.  There  is  certainly  room  for  expansion. 
Utahi  is  our  Samaria,  and  the  fact  that  Utah  is  not 
thoroughly  cultivated  for  the  Gospel,  may  be  shown  by 
the  fact  that  there  are  four  hundred  postof fices  in  Utah, 
and  in  only  ninety  of  the  places  where  these  postoffices 


58  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

are  found,  are  there  Protestant  churches.  A  Baptist 
home  missionary  secretary  says  that  there  are  forty 
towns  having  five  hundred  population  or  over  in  the 
state  in  which  there  is  no  Protestant  work  of  any  kind. 
Wyoming,  too,  has  many  unoccupied  opportunities.  In 
one  town  a  young  wox-nan  school  teacher,  sixteen  years 
of  age,  who  had  been  a  Christian  only  a  few  weeks,  was 
asked  to  conduct  a  funeral  service,  and  when  she  said 
that  it  would  be  impossible  for  her  to  do  it,  the  reply 
was  made  that  the  nearest  church  was  one  hundred 
miles  distant  and  she  was  the  only  Christian  they  knew. 
It  was  afterward  discovered  that  there  was  no  Sunday 
school  nearer  to  that  village  than  seventy-five  miles. 
Think  what  that  means  when  $250  will  secure  from  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension,  the 
erection  of  a  me'xnorial  church!  The  Home  Missions 
Council  last  year  made  a  study  of  Colorado  and  they 
found,  as  a  result  of  their  investigation,  that  there  were 
one  hundred  towns  in  Colorado  in  which  there  was 
neither  Protestant  nor  Catholic  church,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  in  which  there  was  no  Protestant 
church  of  any  kind.  One  Superintendent  of  our  Church 
in  Colorado  recently  made  the  statement  that  he  could 
open  fifty  new  preaching  places  at  once  if  he  had  the 
money  and  the  men. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  unoccupied  opportu- 
nities in  this  great  western  field,  but  enough  has  been 
said  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  that  offerings  of  money 


The  Winning  of  the  West  59 

and  'men  and  prayer  must  be  multiplied  if  the  situation 
is  to  be  adequately  met.  There  is  no  challenge  quite  so 
urgent  as  the  challenge  of  an  unoccupied,  strategic  op- 
portunity. 

IV.  Nothing  less  than  a  princely  offering  of 
money,  men  and  prayer  can  make  the  West  what  it 
ought  to  he  in  the  light  of  the  fact  that  the  West  fronts 
on  the  world. 

The  West  has  an  impact  on  the  non-Christian 
world.  That  impact  will  increase.  That  impact  must 
be  Christianized.  There  is  no  escape  from  the  fact 
that  in  these  days  one  cannot  abide  in  Jesus  and  abide 
on  one  continent  alone.  It  is  perilous  business,  this,  of 
keeping  house  in  sight  of  the  world,  but  it  cannot  be 
escaped.  The  white  light  of  publicity  blazes  in  our 
faces,  and  the  way  we  live  our  life  will  be  seen  by  and 
profoundly  influence  the  whole  world.  We  have  sev- 
eral thousand  miles  of  frontage  on  the  world's  greatest 
arena,  where,  in  the  days  just  ahead,  the  great  commer- 
cial, political  and  religious  events  will  take  place.  It  is 
as  though  God  had  given  us  the  best  reserved  seats  that 
we  may  look  out  upon  the  world's  greatest  game  of 
statesmanship  and  civilization.  It  will  take  leadership 
of  the  rarest  and  highest  kind,  and  consecration  of  the 
deepest  sort,  to  adequately  cope  with  the  bewildering 
number  and  complexity  of  world  problems  that  are 
thrust  upon  us.  What  we  need  now  is  men  with  the 
breadth  of  the  prairies  in  their  thinking;  the  height  of 


6o  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  mountains  in  their  hearts  and  the  smell  of  the  planet 
on  all  their  garments !  It  took  the  old  Greeks  forty 
djays  to  go  the  length  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  from 
Phoenicia  to  the  pillars  of  Hercules.  Today  we  can 
cover  the  greatest  stretch  of  open  sea  in  the  world, — 
10,000  miles  of  Pacific  ocean  water, — in  one-half  the 
ti/ne  that  they  could  go  the  length  of  the  Mediterranean 
with  the  fastest  ships  of  the  olden  days.  Our  West 
fronts  right  out  on  to  that  sea,  onto  which  look  out  the 
eyes  of  one-half  the  human  race. 

We  are  a  race  of  world-confronting  men  commer- 
cially, intellectually,  racially  and  religiously.  Think  for 
one  moment  of  just  one  illustration  of  what  is  ahead: 
When  the  Panama  Canal  is  built.  New  York  will  be 
nearer  by  ship  to  all  the  ports  of  Orient  than  England 
is  by  from  200  to  more  than  2,000  miles.  The  iron 
masters  in  Pittsburg  can  load  their  iron  on  board  ves- 
sels without  leaving  their  own  city,  and  that  iron  need 
never  leave  the  water  until  it  is  unloaded  amid  the  wil- 
derness of  chimneys  in  Osaka,  the  Pittsburg  of  Japan, 
or  Shanghai,  the  Birmingham  of  the  Orient.  The  farm- 
ers in  Nebraska  and  Iowa  can  load  wheat  on  board  ves- 
sels without  leaving  their  own  states,  and  that  wheat 
need  never  leave  the  water  until  it  is  distributed  in  the 
great  hunger  centers  of  the  Oriental  world.  The  cotton 
and  rice  growers  of  the  southwest  can  pour  their  pro- 
ducts through  Galveston,  which  is  now  the  second  ex- 
port city  in  the  United  States,  in  tremendously  increas- 


The  Winning  of  the  West  6i 

ing  volux-ne.  Now,  from  New  York  to  Shanghai  it  is 
18,910  miles;  then  it  will  be  only  10,885  miles.  Now, 
it  is  19,535  niiles  to  Manila;  then  it  will  be  8,000  miles 
nearer.  All  this  will  have  a  vast  influence  on  the  West 
and  Southwest,  as  well  as  the  eastern  ports  of  our  land. 

Then,  too,  this  western  country  is  better  advertised 
today  than  it  ever  was  before.  Every  returned  immi- 
grant,— and  they  may  now  be  numbered  by  hundreds 
of  thousands, — is  an  enthusiastic  press  agent  and  pro- 
moter of  the  interests  of  America  to  the  farthest  con- 
fines of  Europe  and  Asia.  In  little  hamlets  and  villages 
thousands  of  miles  from  the  great  sea-ports,  the  name 
and  fame  of  America,  with  its  golden  opportunities,  is 
discussed  in  the  market  place  and  by  the  fireside.  Let 
us  brace  ourselves  for  the  coming  of  the  greatest  tide 
of  peoples  that  the  world  has  ever  seen!  These  facts 
challenged  us  to  a  new  study  of  the  frontier;  to  a  new 
grappling  with  the  issues  involved  in  its  Christian  con- 
quest. To  win  the  West  will  take  a  great  offering, 
but  when  the  West  is  won,  the  impact  on  all  the  con- 
tinents will  be  measureless. 

Look  also  for  one  moment  at  another  fact :  Amer- 
ica has  been  styled  ''the  crucible  of  God,"  ''the  labora- 
tory of  the  Almighty,"  "the  melting-pot,"  for  here  it 
seems  that  God  is  working  out  a  final  type  of  civiliza- 
tion. If  I  read  the  signs  of  the  times  aright,  any  nation 
which  is  to  have  a  commanding  future,  must  have  at 
least  six  marks. 


62  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

In  the  first  place,  any  nation  that  is  to  have  a  com- 
manding future  must  be  strategically  located  and  have 
other  favoring  geographic  conditions.  Just  note,  for 
there  is  no  time  for  discussing  them  at  length,  some  of 
the  things  that  indicate  the  place  of  strategy  occupied 
by  the  United  States  on  the  map:  It  is  in  the  states- 
'man's  belt  of  power;  it  has  the  only  great  and  densely 
populated  geographical  area  facing  both  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Pacific  oceans.  Then,  too,  our  country  is  iso- 
lated from  other  commanding  powers,  so  that  it  has  op- 
portunity for  developing  its  internal  resources  and  de- 
voting itself  to  the  solution  of  its  own  problems  as  no 
other  great  land.  The  United  States  is  nearer,  in  the 
aggregate,  to  all  the  great  undeveloped  parts  of  the 
world  than  any  other  commanding  power. 

In  the  second  place,  the  supreme  nations  of  the 
future  will  be  large.  On  this  point  take  the  testimony 
of  Gladstone,  that  great  statesman  across  seas,  who  said 
"The  United  States  has  a  natural  base  for  the  greatest 
continuous  empire  ever  established  by  mankind." 

Again,  the  commanding  nation  must  be  rich,  and 
we  have  been  reminding  ourselves  these  days  of  the  fact 
that  we  grow  more  wheat  twice  over  than  any  other  land 
in  the  world  except  Russia.  We  have  one-half  of  the 
railroads  of  the  world,  and,  according  to  the  most  con- 
servative estimates  of'  financial  leaders,  about  forty 
cents  out  of  every  dollar  in  the  world  is  to  be  found 
in  the  United  States.     We  are  rich. 


The  Winning  of  the  West  63 

But  further,  any  nation  which  is  to  have  a  com- 
manding future,  must  not  only  be  large  and  rich,  but 
cosmopolitan.,  We  have  been  reminded  again  and  again 
how  God  is  mingling  here  the  blood  of  more  nations 
and  more  citizens  of  xnore  nations  than  any  other  coun- 
try on  the  globe. 

In  the  next  place,  nations  that  have  a  command- 
ing future  must  be  democratic.  Many  men  are  saying 
these  days  that  Democracy  is  the  inevitable  future  of 
mankind.  Democracy  is  a  spirit,  best  expressed,  per- 
haps, by  that  potent  phrase  "a  square  deal."  An  equal 
opportunity  with  equal  punishments  and  equal  rewards 
for  every  man, — that  is  Democracy.  Perhaps  there  is 
no  place  in  the  world  where  there  is  so  much  of  it  as 
in  the  United  States. 

Last  of  all  and  greatest  of  all,  the  commanding 
nations  of  the  future  will  be  Christian.  It  is  the  busi- 
ness of  home  missions  to  make  America  increasingly 
the  most  Christian  nation  in  the  world. 

Men  of  the  West,  shall  we  not  pay  the  price  of 
the  winning  of  the  West:  A  great  volume  of  prayer, 
millions  of  money  and  the  last  son  or  daughter  re- 
quired to  increase  to  the  point  of  adequacy  the  forces 
needed  for  the  task!  Christ  calls  us  to  this  princely 
sacrifice. 

"I  ask  no  heaven  till  earth  be  Thine, 
No  glory  crown  while  work  of  mine 


64  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resoiirces 

Remaineth  here.     When  earth  shall  shine 
Among  the  stars,  Her  sins  cast  out,  her  captives  free, 
Her  voice  a  music  unto  Thee — 
For  crown  more  work  give  Thou  to  me. 
Lord  here  I  am." 

Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren,  said:  We  know  the 
Infinitely  Good  God  never  requires  anything  of  any- 
body without  making  just  returns.  When  that  small 
boy  helped  Christ  in  one  of  his  greatest  miracles  by 
giving  him  his  lunch,  the  Lord  took  it;  that  left  the  boy 
hungry.  How  he  happened  to  have  anything  left  at  that 
time  I  do  not  know,  because  boys  always  eat  their  lunch 
like  other  people,  but  he  had  it  and  offered  it  to  the 
Lord  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  first  piece  of  heaven- 
ly bread  that  He  broke  off  in  divine  manner  He  gave 
to  that  boy.  So  in  our  work,  like  the  boy,  He  always 
returns  to  us  better  than  we  give. 

Years  ago  there  was  a  Bethel  ship  in  New  York 
harbor;  a  German  got  converted,  went  back  to  his  own 
people,  and  from  that  time  until  now  there  has  been  a 
stream  of  German  life  and  power  and  purity  and  de- 
votion to  God  pouring  in  upon  us,  and  we  have  ten 
great  conferences  of  Germans  in  this  country;  they 
speak  English  and  German  mutually,  agreeable  one  to 
another,  and  to  all  who  hear,  and  the  Bishop  who  is  to 
speak  to  us  tonight,  born  in  Zurich,  of  Swiss  parentage, 
but  in  regard  to  territory,  blood  and  name,  German,  I 
am  delighted  to  introduce  to  you  Bishop  Nuelson,  of 
Omaha.     (Applause). 


Rev.   Ward  Piatt,  D.  D. 
Assistant  Corresponding  Secretary 


Rev.  Chas.  M.  Boswell,  D.  D. 
Assistant  Corresponding  Secretary 


Rev.  Henry  J.  Coker 
ield  Secretary  and  President  of  Parliaments 


Rev.  I.  L.  Thomas,  D.  D. 
Field  Secretary 


AMERICA  AS  A  WORLD  POWER. 

BISHOP   L.    NUELSON,    L.L.    D. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Our  good 
Bishop  Warren  did  not  state  what  I  am  desirous  of 
stating:  That  he  has  a  lecture  on  this  same  topic  on 
which  I  am  to  speak  tonight:  "America  as  a  World 
Power,"  and  his  lecture  is  so  very  much  better  than  mine 
that  I  cannot  get  over  my  amazement  that  I  am  to  speak 
to  you.  I  can  assure  you  that  Bishop  Warren,  when  he 
delivers  his  lecture  on  '^America  as  a  World  Power"  has 
not  borrwed  anything  from  the  address,  which  I  am 
going  to  deliver. 

I  do  not  know  whether  I  can  make  the  same  state- 
'xiient  vice  versa ;  but  I  am  glad  to  state  to  this  audience 
that  the  second  speaker  of  this  evening  in  order — or- 
der of  time — will  be  Bishop  Quayle,  and  I  sincerely 
hope  that  Bishop  Quayle  did  not  undertake  to  come  to 
Denver  on  an  automobile,  but  that  he  came  here  by 
train,  because  last  week  we  were  to  speak  in  one  of  the 
conventions  in  Kansas  and  the  good  Bishop  tried  to 
reach  that  place  by  automobile,  and  the  first  automo- 
bile he  took  broke  down,  then  he  telephoned  for  an- 
other, but  the  weight  of  his  address  was  so  heavy  that 


66  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  second  automobile  broke  down  and  the  Bishop  did 
not  reach  Wichita,  where  he  was  to  speak  at  8  o'clock, 
until  the  next  morning  at  5  o'clock.  (Bishop  Quayle 
at  this  time  comes  in.     Applause). 

(Bishop  Nuelson  continuing).  You  cannot  imag- 
ine my  delight  in  being  able  to  make  the  announcement 
that  Bishop  Quayle  has  arrived.  (Laughter  and  ap- 
plause). 

In  his  endeavor  to  reach  Wichita  last  week,  in  an 
automobile  and  breaking  down  twice,  reminds  me  of  the 
story  that  I  read  of  the  boy  who  was  asked  to  write 
an  essay  on  an  automobile  consisting  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  words;  the  teacher  had  given  that  as  a  lesson, 
and  one  little  boy  wrote  about  as  follows :  "Dad  bought 
a  new  automobile  and  he  thought  he  could  run  it;  he 
took  us  out  riding  and  when  we  were  about  three  miles 
from  town  he  ran  against  a  tree  and  we  were  all 
pitched  out,  and  the  machine  went  to  smash  and  we 
had  to  walk  home  three  miles  over  muddy  roads,  and 
Dad  had  to  carry  the  baby  all  the  time,  and  the  baby 
was  bawling  all  the  time.  These  are  ninety-seven 
words,  the  other  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  words  is 
what  Dad  said  when  he  was  walking  home."  (Laugh- 
ter). 

Now,  I  shall  only  try  to  give  you  97  words.  I 
shall  not  endeavor  to  give  you  the  other  153  words. 
In  the  first  place,  I  have  not  time  to  do  that,  and  in 
the   second  place,   I   think   of   that  beautiful   night   in 


America  as  a  World  Power  67 

Kansas  last  week,  out  there  on  the  prairie  when  the 
Bishop  had  time  to  think  not  only  of  153  words,  but  of 
1^536  words;  no  doubt  he  will  give  you  some  of  them. 
(Laughter). 

The  term  *' World  Power"  is  of  comparatively  re- 
cent significance.  There  always  have  been  powers  that 
were  interested  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  but  not 
until  quite  recently  could  we  speak  of  "World  Powers," 
that  is.  Powers  that  are  interested  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  whose  influence  is  left  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
and  whose  voices  must  be  listened  to  in  every  nook  and 
comer  of  the  globe.  This  is  true  in  the  political  world. 
Go  back  with  me,  if  you  please,  over  the  brief  space  of 
thirty  years  and  we  search  in  vain  for  any  "World 
Powers."  It  is  true  England  had  her  foreign  depend- 
encies, Russia  pushed  toward  the  East  and  toward  the 
South,  towards  the  regions  of  the  Caucasus  and  Central 
Asia;  France,  and  some  other  European  nations,  had 
their  foreign  policies,  and  yet  European  politics  were 
controlled  by  European  questions;  the  great  question 
was  how  not  to  disturb  the  European  equilibrium  in 
case  of  a  division  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  all  the 
great  questions  that  concerned  the  great  statesmen  of 
Europe  a  generation  ago  were  really  European  ques- 
tions. 

America,  thirty  years  ago,  was  busy  recovering 
from  the  destructive  internal  war.  We  were  bent  upon 
reconstruction   in  the  South,   and   upon  exploring  and 


68  The  Conservation  oj  Our  Moral  Resources 

settling  the  great  Northwest.  It  is  true,  America  was 
always  defender  of  the  Monroe  doctrine.  While  say- 
ing emphatically  to  the  European  powers:  "Hands 
Off,"  as  regards  the  American  continent,  yet  America 
did  not  think  for  a  moment  to  engage  in  the  European 
problems,  or  any  of  the  problems  of  the  far  East.  For 
over  a  century  the  solemn  injunction  of  Washington's 
farewell  address  had  been  heeded;  not  to  become  en- 
tangled in  foreign  alliances.  All  of  our  presidential 
elections  turned  on  internal  questions.  But  within  the 
last  thirty  years  a  very  great  and  momentous  change 
has  taken  place.  A  movement  for  world  wide  expan- 
sion has  taken  place  which  is  unparallelled  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  race.  There  were  two  events  in  the  history 
of  forty  centuries  which  had  changed  the  territorial  as- 
pect of  the  civilized  world  more  than  any  other  events: 
The  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  con- 
quest of  the  Caliphs.  But  great  as  the  territorial 
changes  were,  which  ensued  on  account  of  these  con- 
quests, the  territorial  changes  which  took  place  during 
the  last  thirty  years  were  much  greater.  At  first  it 
seemed  as  if  America  would  not  be  affected  by  these 
changes.  But  there  came  a  war,  one  of  the  briefest 
wars  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and,  from  a  military 
standpoint,  not  very  eventful ;  only  three  battles  were 
fought  worthy  of  that  name,  two  on  sea  in  different 
parts  of  the  world,  and  one  on  land,  and  yet  this  brief 
war  has  brought  consequences  which  seem  altogether 
out  of  proportion  to  the  cause. 


America  as  a  World  Power  69 

A  foreign  diplomat,  residing  in  Washington,  stated 
that  although  he  had  lived  in  America  only  a  few  years, 
he  had  seen  two  entirely  different  Americas :  America 
before  the  Spanish  War  was  an  entirely  different  na- 
tion than  America  after  the  Spanish-American  War. 
We  were,  by  that  war,  thrown  out  upon  the  wide  arena 
of  world  politics,  and,  as  has  been  stated  "Avuerica  blew 
up  in  the  Maine  and  came  down  everywhere."  The 
great  nations  of  the  world  have  passed  out  of  the  "Pe- 
riod of  Nationalism  of  the  Nineteenth  Century"  and 
have  passed  into  what  Professor  Reinsch  calls  the 
"Period  of  National  Imperialism".  Whether  we  like 
the  expressions  "Imperialism"  and  "Expansion"  or  not, 
we  cannot  stem  the  tide  of  history,  and  history  has 
taken  us  out  into  that  wide  ocean  of  world  wide  ex- 
pansion. 

But  not  only  in  the  field  of  politics  and  diplomatic 
relation  has  the  expression  "World  Power"  a  trem- 
endous significance,  but  also  in  our  economic  relations. 
There  is  a  great  conquest  going  on  today,  not  a  mili- 
tary conquest,  not  a  political  conquest,  not  a  conquest 
for  far  lands  and  islands,  but  an  economic  conquest  is 
going  on.  The  great  nations  say  today  "The  World  is 
My  Market,"  and  they  send  their  agents  and  their  mer- 
chants into  all  parts  of  the  world.  Asia  with  her  limit- 
less opportunities  has  opened  her  doors.  South  Amer- 
ica shows  to  the  world  her  immense  resources,  Africa 
gives  glimpses  of  her  riches,  all  the  countries  are  open 


70  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

for  this  commercial  conquest.  Of  these  three  greatest 
nations  that  are  engaged  in  this  conquest:  Great  Brit- 
ain, Germany  and  the  United  States,  two,  the  first  two, 
are  co'xnpelled  to  trade  in  the  great  markets  of  the  world 
for  the  products  of  their  industry,  because  they  cannot 
raise  enough  food  stuffs  to  feed  the  millions  of  their 
inhabitants ;  England  cannot  do  it,  Germany  cannot  do  it. 

Let  me  give  this  illustration:  At  the  close  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  Germany  had  a  population  of 
about  45,ooo,cxx).  Since  that  time  the  population  has 
increased,  not  by  immigration,  or  expansion,  but  the 
surplus  of  births  at  the  rate  of  800,000  a  year.  Today 
Germany  has  a  population  of  65,000,000  people,  and 
very  soon  it  will  have  double  the  population  that  it  had 
thirty-five  years  ago;  but  (kniiany  today  can  raise  only 
enough  to  feed  50,000,000  or  52,000,000  people,  and  she 
is  compelled  to  buy  cotton  and  iron  and  other  raw  ma- 
terials and  manufacture  these  goods  and  sell  these  goods 
in  other  countries  and  continents  in  order  to  buy  bread 
for  the  milHons  which  she  cannot  support. 

But  there  is  still  another  sphere  in  which  we  can 
today,  speak  of  World  Powers,  and  that  is  the  higher 
sphere  of  moral  and  spiritual  influence,  and  of  all  the 
influences  that  make  up  civilization,  to  my  mind,  this 
is  the  greatest  sphere. 

Our  swift  messengers  of  communication  and  trans- 
portation carry  noble  thoughts  and  new  discoveries  and 
the  inspiration  of  great  deeds  with  lightening  rapidity 


America  as  a  World  Power  71 

to  all  parts  of  the  world.  Today,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  every  man  is  a  neighbor  to 
every  other  man.  Those  barriers  that  have  separated 
nations  and  races  for  centuries,  have  fallen  down  and 
whole  races  are  enabled  to  look  into  the  faces  of  each 
other;  the  white  race,  and  the  brown  race,  and  the  black 
race,  and  the  yellow  race,  and  the  races  of  other  colors : 
Congresses  are  held  in  different  places  in  the  world, 
religious  problems,  labor  problems,  scientific  problems 
are  discussed;  representatives  of  all  the  various  nations 
meet  and  discuss  questions  touching  the  welfare  of 
every  nation  in  the  world.  You  take  today  a  man  who 
may  live  twenty  miles  from  the  nearest  railway  station 
and  postoffice.  If  he  has  a  telephone  in  his  house,  that 
man  is  in  closer  touch  with  London  and  Paris  and  Ber- 
lin and  Rome  and  Capetown  and  Madras  and  Calucutta 
and  Melbourne  and  Pekin  and  Tokio  than  his  grand- 
father who  lived  in  New  York  was  in  touch  with  Bos- 
ton or  Baltimore,  not  to  mention  Chicago,  or  Denver, 
which  were  not  known  at  that  time.     (Applause). 

That  means  that  any  one  today  who  has  a  thought 
worth  thinking,  who  makes  a  discovery  which  will  bene- 
fit mankind,  who  does  sOxTie  deed,  the  inspiration  of 
which  will  help  others,  that  any  one  who  does  this  kind 
of  work  may  be,  within  twenty-four  hours  a  teacher  of 
the  whole  world.  The  daily  papers  published  in  every 
large  city  around  the  whole  globe  will  communicate  to 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  readers  that  dis- 
covery within  twelve  hours  after  it  has  been  made. 


72  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Now,  let  us  for  a  moment  look  at  the  position 
which  America  occupies  in  this  modern  world.  God 
has  placed  us  geographically  in  a  most  remarkable  posi- 
tion. I  like  to  look  upon  this  whole  world  as  a  school 
with  God  as  the  Great  Master.  I  was  a  teacher  for  so 
many  years  I  cannot  break  away  from  that  thought  of 
teaching,  and  I  like  to  look  on  this  world  as  a  school. 

Back  in  the  beginning  of  history  when  God  began 
this  business  of  teaching,  He  formed  a  great  kinder- 
garten class.  He  went  to  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  and 
Nile  rivers,  took  12,000,000  people  and  formed  His 
kindergarten  class;  a  pretty  big  kindergarten  class,  but 
God  does  things  on  a  large  scale.  He  took  that  kinder- 
garten class  and  they  had  to  spell  out  the  most  elemen- 
tary lessons  in  morals  and  religion.  He  sent  them  some 
great  teachers,  Abraham  and  Moses  and  Isaiah  and 
others.  After  some  centuries  had  gone  by,  He  went  to 
the  Mediterranean  and  took  a  class  of  50,000,000  peo- 
ple in  the  Roman  Empire  to  forni  His  next  class.  To 
them  He  sent  some  great  teachers  in  law  and  in  art  and 
in  philosophy  and  in  morals  and  in  religion,  and  they 
had  to  spell  out  higher  lessons  and  He  sent  to  that  class 
the  greatest  teacher  which  He  ever  sent  to  this  world: 
His  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  Then  He  went  still  further. 
He  went  to  the  Atlantic  ocean  and  He  took  500,000,000 
living  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  and  He  formed 
an  advanced  class,  for  centuries  had  to  spell  out 
some    additional     lessons.     Then    God  formed    a    still 


America  as  a  World  Power  73 

larger  class.  He  went  to  the  Pacific  ocean  and  took 
the  800,000,000  of  people  on  either  side,  and  now  He 
is  conducting  these  two  classes;  one  class  consisting  of 
500,000,000  people  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
800,000,000  people  on  the  sides  of  the  Pacific,  and  to 
these  people  He  gives  the  greatest  lessons :  The  appli- 
cation of  'moral  and  spiritual  principles  not  only  to  in- 
dividual life,  but  to  the  complex  organism  of  the  civic 
and  social  and  industrial  life  of  whole  nations  and  races. 
This  is  the  school  in  which  we  are,  and  America  is 
placed  right  in  the  center  of  these  two  great  classes. 
The  two  great  storm  centers  of  civilization  are  the  At- 
lantic and  the  Pacific  oceans,  and  America  is  the  only 
country  that  extends  from  one  to  the  other;  no  part  too 
hot  for  the  white  man  to  live  in  and  no  part  too  cold 
but  that  wheat  and  corn  and  the  other  products  neces- 
sary for  the  sustenance  of  human  life  can  be  raised. 

Thus  by  geographical  position  God  has  placed  this 
country  of  ours  in  a  position  where  we  can  touch  all 
other  nations. 

For  centuries  the  countries  of  the  world  were  di- 
vided into  the  great  Orient,  the  countries  of  the  rising 
sun;  and  the  Occident,  the  countries  of  the  setting  sun. 
When  we  want  to  travel  to  the  Orient  we  have  to  face 
towards  the  West,  and  when  we  want  to  travel  to  the 
countries  of  the  setting  sun,  or  the  Occident,  we  have 
to  turn  our  faces  to  the  rising  sun.  As  Mr.  Pronne- 
tiere,  the  editor  of  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  the 


74  The  Conservation  oj  Our  Moral  Resources 

•most  influential  publication  in  France  says:  "This  is 
the  greatest  theater  for  human  activity  that  can  be 
imagined  in  this  world."  Not  only  our  geographic  po- 
sition has  placed  us  in  such  a  place  that  we  can  be  a 
"World  Power,"  but  also  the  very  composition  of  our 
population  puts  us  in  touch  with  all  the  other  countries 
of  this  world,  as  does  that  of  no  other  country.  It  is 
remarkable  how  we^  can  see  the  hand  of  God  in  the 
makeup  of  our  population.  From  the  very  beginning 
God  sent  to  this  country  the  choicest  representatives  of 
those  European  nations  who  have  made  European  civ- 
ilizations; they  came  from  England  and  Scotland  and 
from  Ireland  and  some  of  them  from  the  Isle  of  Man 
(Indicating  Bishop  Quayle).  (Laughter).  And  they 
came  from  other  places;  they  came  from  Scandinavia 
and  Germany,  and  they  were  of  the  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon 
stock,  the  acme  of  European  civilization.  Men  who 
were  trained  in  political  science ;  men  who  had  the  moral 
courage  to  leave  everything  dear  to  human  hearts  in 
order  to  enjoy  liberty  and  freedom  of  conscience;  the 
very  best  blood  of  Europe  came  here.  Some  people  talk 
as  if  only  the  dregs  of  European  society  had  been 
shipped  to  America.  Those  undesirable  citizens;  the 
criminals  and  the  paupers,  and  all  of  those  that  Europe 
wants  to  get  rid  of;  but  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  that; 
it  is  not  so.  The  very  best  people  came  from  over 
there;  I,  myself,  came  from  there.  (Applause  and 
laughter).     I  belong  to  that  crowd  and  quite  a  number 


America  as  a  World  Power  75 

of  you  belong  to  the  same  company,  or  your  fathers, 
or  your  mothers  belonged  to  it.  Now,  those  people 
settled  our  Atlantic  seaports ;  they  crossed  the  Alleghenys 
and  they  laid  the  foundation  of  these  magnificent  com- 
tmonwealths  of  this  great  country  between  the  Alleg- 
heny mountains  and  the  Rocky  mountains.  Then  when 
the  foundations  were  laid,  God  opened  the  door  still 
wider  and  now  people  come  from  Eastern  Europe  and 
from  Asia. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  center  of  immigration  was 
Paris.  If  you  will  take  a  map  of  Europe  and  draw  a 
circle  with  Paris  as  center  you  will  find  that  you  in- 
clude Great  Britain  and  Scandinavia,  and  the  Northern 
part  of  Italy  and  Spain.  But  now  the  center  of  Euro- 
pean immigration  is  Constantinople,  and  that  takes  in 
Roumania  and  Bulgaria  and  Bohemia  and  Russia  and 
Greece  and  Southern  Italy  and  Asia  Minor,  and  these 
are  the  countries  from  which  our  immigrants  come. 
God  opened  the  door  still  wider  and  they  come  from 
other  parts  of  the  world  and  they  come  from  India  and 
China  and  Japan  and  from  Korea.  We  may  pass  as 
many  restrictive  laws  as  we  have  a  mind  to,  but  we  can- 
not close  the  doors  so  tight  that  no  one  will  come.  Now 
God  has  a  purpose  in  sending  these  people  here.  You 
may  go  to  any  large  dt^  today — I  think  it  is  as  true  of 
Denver  as  of  any  othet  large  city — and  draw  a  center 
at  the  Court  House,  or  the  City  Hall,  and  ask  each  man, 
woman  or  child  within  a  mile  of  the  City  Hall  where 


76  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

she  or  he  was  born,  or  where  her  or  his  father  and 
mother  were  born,  and  then  draw  an  imaginary  Hne 
from  every  man,  woman  and  child  to  the  country  of 
his  or  her  birth,  or  to  the  country  of  the  birth  of  his 
or  her  father  or  mother,  and  you  will  touch  every  coun- 
try under  the  shining  stars.  By  the  very  composition 
of  our  population  we  are  in  touch  with  every  country 
under  the  sun  as  no  other  nation  is,  and  our  population 
today  represents  the  civilization  of  the  world.  Why 
there  is  no  other  country  can  say,  as  I  heard  one  say: 
**My  mother  was  an  Irishman  and  my  mother-in-law  was 
a  Dutchman,  and  my  son's  mother-in-law  is  a  French- 
man.'' 

The  manner  in  which,  by  the  very  composition  of 
our  population,  we  influence  other  nations  has  brought 
vividly  to  my  mind  an  experience  I  had  some  years  ago: 
I  was  traveling  in  Northern  Italy.  I  went  to  one  of 
the  mountain  villages;  there  were  no  roads  leading  to 
that  village.  I  had  to  climb  over  the  rocks  and  follow 
a  foot  path,  and  when  I  reached  that  village,  the  street 
seemed  to  be  deserted.  Everybody  seemed  to  be  in 
church.  I  saw  only  one  man  sitting  in  front  of  his 
Inn,  and  it  being  time  for  dinner  I  sat  next  to  him. 
Suddenly  he  jumped  up  and  pulled  me  into  the  house. 
I  had  read  of  the  "Black  Hand"  and  other  things  of 
that  kind,  and  things  began  to  look  serious.  I  did  not 
relish  being  killed  in  that  Italian  village.  My  Italian 
friend   said:     *The  church   is  out  and  the  procession 


America  as  a  World  Power  77 

will  pass  around  the  open  place,  and  no  one  is  allowed 
to  be  in  the  street,  and  that  is  the  reason  I  have  asked 
you  to  come  in  the  house."  I  noticed  a  great  many 
children  and  young  women,  and  women  who  had  been 
young  a  good  many  years  before,  and  old  men  but  I  saw 
no  men  of  the  ages  between  i8  and  40  years  of  age.  There 
was  no  war  at  that  time  and  I  could  not  account  for  it.  I 
asked,  "Where  are  the  men?"  'They  are  in  America," 
was  the  reply,  "these  old  men  have  returned  from 
America  and  these  boys  expect  to  go  to  America.  These 
men  in  America  send  money  here  regularly  to  keep 
their  families,  and  after  they  have  earned  enough  so 
they  can  buy  their  homes  they  will  return."  That  was 
one  village  in  Northern  Italy.  Do  you  realize  that 
there  are  thousands  of  villages  of  that  kind,  not  only 
in  Italy,  but  in  Greece,  in  Bohemia,  in  Korea,  in  China, 
in  Japan  and  in  every  other  country.  There  are  thou- 
sands and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  here  who 
earn  money  in  this  country  and  send  it  back,  and  write 
letters  back  and  send  papers  back.  A  postmaster  of  a 
little  village  where  a  great  many  foreigners  are  em- 
ployed, in  the  stone  quarries,  told  me  that  in  one  week 
he  issued  foreign  money  orders  to  the  amount  of  thirty- 
two  thousand  dollars.  It  was  to  Poles  and  Bohemians 
who  sent  money  back  to  their  families.  A  postmaster 
in  a  mining  quarry  in  Southern  Illinois  told  me  that  in 
one  month  he  issued  orders  for  over  one  hundred  thous- 
and dollars.     I  have  seen  the  statement  somewhere  that 


78  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

in  one  year  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  were  sent 
to  the  countries  of  the  world  to  buy  real  estate  and 
property.  These  people  do  not  only  send  money,  but 
they  write  many  letters.  When  they  return  they  tell 
of  their  experiences,  and  there  are  printed  in  American 
papers  in  nearly  every  language  spoken  today,  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  these  papers  are  sent  abroad  and  these 
people  read  them.  The  question  arises,  what  are  the 
contents  of  these  papers?  What  do  these  foreigners 
write  to  their  families  and  friends?  What  is  the  story 
they  have  to  tell  when  they  return?  What  are  the  les- 
sons? God  sent  them  into  this  country  as  into  a  great 
school  and  we  are  teaching  them  lessons  every  day. 
And  what  are  the  lessons  we  are  teaching  them?  What 
are  the  impressions?  What  are  the  lessons  which  they 
learn  here,  the  Italians  and  the  Koreans  and  the  Bohem- 
ians, and  others?  We  sometiines  speak  of  the  great 
dangers  that  come  to  our  civilization  from  the  foreign- 
ers. Let  me  tell  you,  in  a  great  many  cases  it  is  not 
so  much  the  question  of  how  to  protect  our  American 
institutions,  but  the  greater  question  is  how  to  protect 
those  foreigners.  You  talk  about  the  Continental  Sun- 
day here.  I  have  lived  nineteen  years  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe  before  I  came  to  America  and  I  know  some- 
thing about  the  Continental  Sunday.  What  you  call 
the  Continental  Sunday  here  is  not  the  Sunday  there; 
most  of  those  people  that  come  here  are  accustomed  to 
go  to  church  Sunday  morning,  and  the  afternoons  are 


America  as  a  World  Power  79 

given  up  to  excursions,  et  cetera,  but  when  these  foreign- 
ers come  here  they  see  sights  that  they  never  saw  there; 
they  see  on  Sunday  morning  people  going  to  the  parks 
and  amusement  resorts,  and  see  crowds  of  young  men 
clad  in  their  baseball  uniforms  going  to  play  baseball. 
On  the  Continent  it  is  the  afternoon  only;  here,  the 
whole  day  from  early  morning  to  late  at  night.  You 
talk  about  the  danger  that  comes  to  our  institutions 
from  the  votes  of  these  foreigners.  The  danger  arises 
when  those  foreigners  have  learned  some  lessons;  from 
their  American  teachers.  You  cannot  blame  them  for 
that  scandal  in  Ada;Tis  county,  Ohio,  where  the  votes 
were  bought  year  after  year.  You  cannot  lay  the  blame 
of  the  Lorimer  scandal  at  the  door  of  the  foreigners. 
The  foreigner  will  sell  his  vote  if  the  American  politi- 
cian prevails  on  him  to  do  so.  The  trouble  is  that  the 
good  people  in  America  keep  aloof  from  the  foreigner 
and  leave  him  to  the  pernicious  influence  of  the  worst 
elements  in  Axuerican  public  life.  Then  we  are  horri- 
fied when  he  puts  into  practice  the  lessons  he  has 
learned. 

You  remember  a  few  years  ago  when  that  miser- 
able Thaw  trial  filled  the  papers  with  unspeakable  filth. 
Do  you  realize  that  none  of  the  German,  or  Swede,  or 
Norwegian,  or  Bohemian,  or  Polish  papers  printed  those 
reports?  The  foreigners  who  lived  in  this  country  had 
to  learn  the  details  of  that  whole  miserable  thing  from 
their  English  speaking  children  who  read  it  in  English 


8o  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

papers.  It  is  not,  'my  friends,  so  much  the  question  of 
how  to  prevent  the  foreigners  from  tearing  down  our 
institutions.  They  do  not  come  here  with  the  intention 
of  injuring  this  country.  The  question  is  how  to  train 
them  so  that  they  give  the  best  traits  of  their  character 
and  the  accumulated  treasures  of  their  civiHzation  and 
history  to  the  "new  world." 

There  is  a  still  greater  and  more  important  ques- 
tion, namely  to  teach  them  lessons  which  they  in  turn 
will  teach  their  own  country/nen.  There  is  a  mighty 
"backward  wave"  of  immigration,  a  wave  big  with  far 
reaching  influences.  Think  of  it,  for  a  moment,  what  it 
would  mean,  not  only  for  our  own  country,  but  for  the 
civilization  of  the  world  if  all  these  hundreds  of  thous- 
ands of  foreigners  could  write  to  their  friends  and  print 
in  their  papers  the  fact  that  here  is  a  great  nation,  a 
mighty  nation  with  large  cities  and  vast  rural  communi- 
ties, inhabited  by  strong,  healthy,  happy  men  and  wo- 
men, a  whole  nation  without  a  saloon?  Think  of  it, 
what  it  would  mean  for  the  civilization  of  this  whole 
world!  Think  of  what  it  would  mean  for  democracy 
and  for  the  ideals  of  free  government  if  all  of  these 
foreigners  could  write  back  to  their  home  country  that 
here  is  a  great  country  where  we  have  a  government 
from  the  people  and  for  the  people,  and  a  government 
free  from  graft  and  corruption.  Suppose  letters  and 
newspapers  should  be  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  world  con- 
taining a  message  like  this:     "Here  is  a  great  country 


America  as  a  World  Power  8i 

with  great  commercial  enterprises  and  organizations  in 
which  all  the  difficulties  between  capital  and  labor  are 
adjusted  amicably  by  arbitation.  It  would  exert  a  very 
different  influence  from  that  created  by  accounts 
of  graft  and  boycotts,  and  strikes  and  dynamiting  and 
shooting,  and  all  of  those  things.  Whether  we  realize 
it  or  not  the  very  coinposition  of  our  population  has  put 
us  into  a  position  where  we  are  influencing  all  the  other 
countries  with  our  political  ideas,  our  church  ideas,  our 
moral  ideas,  our  spiritual  life;  with  all  the  elements  that 
make  up  our  every  day  life.  America  is  a  "World 
Power"  in  this  respect  as  no  other  nation  can  be. 

One  more  word.  America  is  in  a  position  to  in- 
fluence this  world  also  on  account  of  her  immense  re- 
sources. These  resources  that  God  had  given  to  this 
country  are  si/nply  stupendous;  I  am  not  going  to 
w^eary  you  v/ith  statistics;  they  are  forgotten  as  soon 
as  they  are  given,  God  has  made  this  country  so  rich 
that  v»'e  have  hardly  tapped  our  resources.  Sometimes 
people  say  that  our  fields  do  not  produce  as  much  now 
as  they  used  to;  this  is  all  nonsense.  When  you  look 
at  the  last  report  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  you 
will  find  that  the  figures  of  what  America  made  out  of 
her  fields  and  gardens  is  stupendous.  You  people  in 
Denver  are  accustomed  to  handle  millions.  I  am  not. 
When  I  want  to  think  of  a  very  large  sum,  I  have  to 
get  at  it  in  a  rather  clumsy  way.  I  think  of  six  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  then  I  put  the  figure  2  before  it  and  I 


82  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

have  twenty-six  millions,  and  before  that  I  put  the  fig- 
ure 9,  and  I  have  nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  million, 
and  before  that  I  put  8,  and  I  get  eight  thousand,  nine 
hundred  and  twenty-six  millions,  and  that,  xiiy  friends, 
is  what  we  made  last  year  in  America  from  our  fields 
and  farms,  J.  J.  Hill  says  that  we  have  simply  scratched 
the  surface.  Scratching  the  surface;  and  make  eight 
thousand,  nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  millions  of  dol- 
lars!— What  are  we  going  to  make  when  we  begin  to 
dig  down?     (Applause). 

And  most  of  that  money  was  made  in  these  great 
Western  states.  Our  farmers  in  the  West  are  getting 
so  rich  they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  their  money. 
I  believe  if  we  did  not  have  automobiles  they  would  not 
know  what  to  do  with  their  money.  Not  very  long  ago 
in  one  of  those  little  towns  in  Kansas,  a  banker  told  me 
that  he  handled  checks  and  drafts  for  eighty- five  thous- 
and dollars  in  payxTient  for  automobiles  that  the  farm- 
ers bought,  and  that  the  year  after  that  he  handled  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  In  two  years, 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  in  payment  for  automo- 
biles for  the  farmers.  I  read  a  statement  that  a  little 
town,  consisting  of  three  thousand  people,  bought  one 
hundred  and  seventy- five  automobiles  and  it  took  fifty- 
one  cars  to  transport  them.  That  makes  me  think  of 
a  farmer  who  does  not  live  in  Colorado,  or  Kansas,  or 
Nebraska,  but  in  some  other  state  in  the  central  West. 
He  came  to  a  garage  one  afternoon,  and  said:    ''How 


America  as  a  World  Power  83 

much  do  them  there  automobiles  cost?'*  The  agent  told 
him  the  price,  and  then  he  said :  "Do  I  get  it  for  less 
if  I  pay  cash?"  Yes,  the  agent  thought  he  could  make 
a  reduction.  The  farmer  said  "Do  I  get  them  for  less 
if  I  buy  three?"  He  said:  "Well,  do  you  want  to  buy 
three?"  "Yes,  it  is  this  way:  I  and  the  old  woman 
want  an  automobile;  I  want  to  take  her  to  church,  and 
then  there  is  my  son  Charley,  and  he  has  a  girl,  and  he 
wants  to  take  her  riding,  and  then  there  is  my  son  Jim, 
and  when  Charley  takes  his  girl  they  don't  want  to 
have  him  tagging  along,  and,  besides,  Jim  has  a  girl, 
too,  and  so  I  will  have  to  buy  one  for  me  and  the  old 
girl,  and  one  for  Charley  and  one  for  Jim".  And  that 
evening  he  drew  his  check  for  four  thousand,  three 
hundred  dollars  for  three  automobiles,  and  I  am  in- 
formed  that  that  man  gave  for  the  salvation  of  Amer- 
ica and  the  rest  of  the  world  the  magnificent  incredible 
sum  of  fifteen  dollars  a  year.  That  is  not  even 
"Scratching  the  surface."  (Laughter.)  That  is  blow- 
ing off  of  your  sleeves  the  dust  that  settles  there  when 
you  are  autoinobiling ;  blowing  it  off  and  offering  it  to 
the  Lord.  (Applause).  But  there  are  many,  yes  a 
great  host,  in  America  who  have  a  more  consciencious 
way  of  thanking  the  Lord  for  what  our  American  na- 
tion is. 

My  friends,  we  have  the  money;  we  have  the 
means ;  we  have  people  who  are  in  touch  with  the  world ; 
we  have  been  placed  by  God  in  this  strategic  position 


84  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

and  here  our  church,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church 
is  the  strongest  protestant  church  in  this  country.  (Ap- 
plause). And  God  has  given  us  these  great  opportu- 
nities; He  has  given  us  a  church,  the  people  and  the 
means  and  the  position  and  the  organization  and  every- 
thing that  is  needed  to  bring  this  country  to  the  feet 
of  Jesus  Christ.     (Applause). 

My  friends,  it  is  time  to  quit  doing  little  things; 
it  is  time  to  quit  dilly-dallying;  it  is  time  to  quit  fool- 
ing; we  are  living  in  a  great  time.  We  are  living  in  a 
time  of  world  influence  and  every  time  you  work  in 
your  own  little  community,  every  time  you  stand  up 
for  what  is  right,  in  politics,  in  social  life,  in  business; 
and  every  time  you  do  the  right  thing  to  the  foreigner 
with  whom  you  come  in  touch,  and  every  time  you  do 
the  right  thing  in  your  home,  and  in  your  church,  you 
are  asserting  an  influence  that  is  bound  to  go  beyond  your 
little  church,  or  your  community,  or  your  common- 
wealth, or  even  your  nation.  You  are  asserting  an  in- 
fluence that  will  be  felt  in  its  consequences  all  the  world 
over. 

May  God  really  lift  us  up  with  Jesus  Christ  in 
heavenly  places  that  from  above  there  we  may  see  this 
country  and  see  this  world  with  all  the  needs  and  miser- 
ies eliminated,  and  all  its  splendid  resources  developed, 
and  may  we,  as  a  church,  measure  up  to  these  principles 
that  God  has  given  us  to  do:  To  be  co-workers  with 
Him  in  transforming  these  kingdoms  and  republics  in- 
to the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord,  Jesus  Christ.     (Applause). 


Introduction  85 

Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren,  in  introducing  Bishop 
William  A.  Quayle,  said:  Now  I  have  great  pleas- 
ure in  introducing  Doctor  Quayle,  and  he  will  travel 
with  you  in  those  regions  celestial  and  divine,  and  you 
will  travel  and  not  "break  down.'^ 


THE  PRESERVATION  OF  OUR  CIVILIZATION. 

BISHOP  WILLIAM  A.  QUAYLE^  LIT.  D. 

Your  majesty,  the  Bishop.  The  Bishop  was  speak- 
ing by  faith,  not  by  sight. 

Now,  as  I  understand  this  situation,  being  a  man 
a  little  slow  of  comprehension,  I  gather  from  Bishop 
Nuelson's  remarks  that  I  am  to*  say  the  bad  words  here 
tonight;  he  said  the  good  words;  is  that  right?  (Laugh- 
ter.) 

Now,  I  have  been  in  this  country  so  long  that  I  have 
gotten  cured  of  saying  bad  words — I  leave  that  to  the 
Germans.  "  (Laughter.) 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  delight  to  one  public  speaker 
when  he  can  hear  another  public  speaker ;  one  of  the  in- 
firmities of  the  preacher  business  is  that  he  himself  talks 
so  much  that  he  does  not  get  to  hear  other  professional 
talkers,  which  is  a  great  intellectual  calamity;  and  in  all 
of  my  public  life  whenever  there  was  any  opportunity 
whatsoever  by  any  possible  means  I  have  made  my  ut- 
most endeavor  to  hear  my  brethren  speak  and  see  the 
faults  of  my  own  intelligence  thereby. 

I  do  not  know  what  Bishop  Nuelson  was  saying 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  Z^ 

about  me  before  I  arrived,  and  I  feel  a  little  fitful  on 
that  subject,  because  you  cannot  tell  what  he  says  when 
he  begins  to  "remarking,"  and  I  do  not  know  what  to 
refute  to  him  when  I  do  not  know  what  he  alleges;  but 
I  will  say  this  in  self  defense :  This  is  the  fourteenth  an- 
nual conference  which  I  have  had  the  honor  and  oppor- 
tunity of  touching  in  this  official  routine;  fourteen  annual 
conferences  officially  related  to  this  job  in  which  we  are 
now.  This  is  a  great  business  when  a  converted  youth 
goes  around  and  visits  fourteen  conferences,  and,  as  far 
as  I  know,  with  the  exception  of  Brother  Coker,  all  of 
these  speakers  are  good  pious  men ;  you  would  not  know 
it  unless  you  lingered  with  them,  but  the  fact  is  the 
same;  the  fourteen  conferences,  which  have  illumin- 
ated our  landscape  and  our  observation  Bishop  Warren, 
is  a  great  honor,  and  this  English  brother,  Brother 
Henry  Coker,  to  him  we  owe  this  business;  and  we  are 
glad  'e  came  from  Hingland  and  got  'ere.  If  I  had  been 
born  and  reared  where  he  was — only  one  crowd  of  folks 
— I  do  not  know  what  under  the  sun  would  have  hap- 
pened to  me ;  it  would  have  been  so  unvarigated  and  un- 
eventful; but  having  been  reared  in  this  dear  America 
of  ours,  where  you  have  here  the  things  of  the  earth, 
cosmopolitanism  has  got  in  my  blood  and  continents 
swarm  around  like  an  animalculae.  Thank  God  I  do  not 
belong  to  an  island  or  Archipeligo  or  continent,  but  to 
the  vascular  earth  for  which  Jesus  Christ  died ;  and  it  is 
so  much  fun  to  have  a  word  to  say  about  this  big  mat- 


88  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

ter,  and  the  only  pathos  imaginable  is  that  a  man  does 
not  know  how  to  use  the  big  words  that  reach  up  to  the 
majesty  of  the  big  things. 

When  I  was  a  little  kid  and  listened  to  fairy  stories 
— when  I  was  not  being  spanked — there  had  to  be  some 
interruption  of  spanking — fairy  stories  was  that  inter- 
ruption— and  when  I  was  being  regaled  with  fairy 
stories,  with  the  natural  aptitude  of  a  boy  child,  the  thrill 
always  came  to  me — not  when  the  Brownies  arrived,  or 
the  fairies — that  did  not  impress  me  much ;  a  little  body 
is  never  impressed  with  other  little  bodies;  children  do 
not  cut  much  figure  with  children ;  we  have  got  to  get  big 
before  children  interest  us  much.  When  we  are  little 
children  big  folks  interest  us,  and  when  we  get  to  be 
big  little  children  interest  us;  but  the  place  where  the 
thrill  came  into  me  was  when  the  Ogre  arrived;  the 
Ogre  was  the  big  business;  so  with  all  of  you  boys;  he 
scared  your  wits  out,  but  you  did  not  have  many  wits  to 
scare  out.  (Laughter.)  A  boy  does  not  have  many 
wits  to  deliver,  whether  by  traffic  or  by  scare.  (Laugh- 
ter.) But  the  Ogre — but  you  say,  "What  have  we  to  do 
with  Ogres  ?"  You  say,  "We  are  people  of  the  twentieth 
century,  and  you  are  a  man  of  the  twentieth  century, 
and  fairies  are  banished  and  fairy  stories  are  nullified 
or  forgot,  and  we  have  naught  to  do  with  fairies  or 
brownies  or  Ogres."  But  I  beg  you  to  recollect  that 
fairy  stories  are  the  forecast  of  the  world's  life;  they  are 
put  into  pictures;  the  world  tomorrow.     Did  anybody 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  89 

ever  imagine  anything?  All  we  people  do  is  to  remem- 
ber what  we  knew.  Shakespeare,  the  most  powerful 
imagination  that  God  has  gifted  to  this  world, 
did  not  imagine  so  much  as  he  saw  and  rehearsed.  God 
is  the  only  imagination  that  counts  in  the  universe; 
everybody  after  Him  is  a  ditto  mark  and  a  reproducer, 
and  the  fairy  stories  are  put  before  the  child's  mind 
what,  as  a  man,  he  must  battle  with,  or  elude,  or  fling 
him  out,  or  throttle  him  down,  or  fling  him  up  to  heaven 
in  high  resolve. 

The  giant ;  that  is  the  trouble ;  the  Ogres,  they  have 
to  be  dealt  with ;  the  giant  that  has  malignant  blood  and 
whose  frame  is  saturated  with  ill,  and  whose  breath  is 
hate,  and  whose  presence  is  venom,  and  whose  shadow 
is  death.  The  Ogres  are  forever  stalwart,  malignant, 
vituperative,  evasive,  shameless,  polluting,  accursed  in 
their  severity  of  anger,  and  frightful. 

What  is  the  world  going  to  do  with  giants?  That 
is  the  question.  What  are  they  going  to  do  with  the 
ogres  of  the  world?  Why  these  fairy  tales?  They  are 
telling  the  world's  story.  Every  once  in  awhile  I  get  a 
new  book  of  Anderson,  the  delicious  fairy  writer  from 
Denmark,  and  I  always  love  them;  they  are  always 
speaking  something  with  a  text  unknown;  and  that  is 
somewhat  delicious  to  ferret  out  a  sermon  without  a 
text.  I  think  Mr.  Harrison's  way  of  going  through  a 
sermon  and  not  divulging  the  text  until  he  got  to  the  end 
was  delicious;  he  addressed  the  text  down,  instead  of  up; 


go  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

and  in  Anderson's  fairy  stories  you  must  ferret  out  the 
text  in  all  the  matters  you  read,  because  they  are  re- 
writing the  story  that  I  have  heard  a  great  many  men 
remark  and  read  in  a  great  many  ways;  thinkers,  wise 
in  their  own  conceit. 

You  would  think  that  the  colossal  endeavor  of  civil- 
ization was  to  construct  civilization,  the  building  up  of 
empire,  the  making  of  today.  It  is  the  rising  out  of  the 
marshes  of  the  Northern  sea.  It  is  the  invading  miasms 
of  that  strange  miasmic  realm  where  Saxon  and  Goth 
proceeded;  it  is  the  coming  away  from  a  Gernian  low- 
land invaded  by  a  marshy  sea  until  she  rises  strong, 
great  and  sublime.  That  is  the  endeavor  of  the  world. 
Oh,  no,  that  is  not  the  endeavor  of  the  world;  oh,  no, 
that  is  not  the  endeavor  of  the  world!  I  am  here  tonight 
to  say  in  the  name  of  history  wherein  the  vast  endeavors 
of  the  world  has  builded  up  and  builded  up  and  builded 
up,  until  tonight  we  stand  upon  the  frontier  of  the  morn- 
ing of  the  world.  I  am  here  to  say  that  the  vast  en- 
deavor of  the  world  is  not  the  building  of  civilization, 
but  it  is  keeping  that  civilization  built  from  demolition; 
that  is  the  great  endeavor  of  the  world;  not  how  are 
you  going  to  get  it  cleaned  today,  but  how  are  you  going 
to  keep  it  clean ;  not  how  you  are  going  to  make  a  great 
auspicious  civilization,  but  how  are  you  to  retain  it? 
Now,  how  is  civilization  to  be  maintained  ?  It  is  an  easy 
thing  to  light  a  star.  God  has  no  trouble  about  it;  all 
He  says  is  to  light  it,  but  it  is  keeping  the  stars  going — 


The  Preservation  oj  Our  Civilization  91 

that  is  the  trick.  I  could  light  a  star  myself  if  I  had  tar 
and  the  kindHng,  but  I  could  not  keep  it  going.  The 
thing  to  do  is  to  keep  it  going.  How  are  you  going  to 
keep  it  going?  , 

Here  is  the  sun,  of  which  Bishop  Warren  knows  a 
thousand  times  more  about  than  I  do,  but  I  do  know 
enough  to  know,  or  not  to  know,  what  ails  the  sun  that 
it  don't  burn  out ;  what  ails  the  sun  that  it  don't  go  low  ? 
I  have  been  in  three  towns  where  there  was  natural  gas, 
and  if  I  had  not  filled  myself  with  hot  air  I  would  have 
been  cold.  (Laughter.)  What  ails  the  sun  that  it  don't 
go  out?  The  answer  is:  God  ails  the  sun.  Making  the 
sun  was  a  puny  job  compared  with  the  sun  not  going 
out.  Those  vast  explosions  of  the  sun,  those  convulsions 
of  fire,  those  hundred  thousand  battles  of  the  giants  with 
the  flame  a  thousand  miles  wide  like  a  prairie  fire.  Oh, 
God  had  kindled  the  fires  of  the  nation.  What  is  the 
reason  that  they  don't  burn  out,  and  what  is  the  reason 
that  the  sun  is  not  a  cinder?  You  don't  remember,  do 
you  Bishop  Warren?     (Laughter.) 

The  Bishop  does  not  remember  it,  and  I  do  not 
know;  he  forgot  it  and  I  never  knew;  and  that  is  the 
wonder  of  the  sun.  Why  doesn't  it  go  out?  I  will  say 
here  tonight  that  in  my  humble  belief,  the  thing  we  have 
been  slow  to  learn,  and  many  of  us  have  not  mastered, 
that,  once  achieved,  is  only  the  beginning  of  a  higher 
endeavor. 

I  remember  once  a  good  woman,  when  I  was  speak- 


92  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

ing  on  temperance  (I  think  she  was  good)  ;  I  was  not 
maudling,  but  very  sober,  and  speaking  truth  as  becom- 
ing a  red-headed  Christian  from  Kansas;  I  was  saying 
this:  "When  prohibition  can  be  gotten  we  would  only 
be  put  in  the  thick  of  the  endeavor."  I  never  said  but 
three  smart  things,  and  that  was  one  of  them.  I  said  it, 
and  I  was  really  kind  of  tickled  over  it,  but  I  did  not 
tell  them  so.  You  cannot  tell  when  I  am  tickled  when 
you  look  at  me  (laughter),  but  a  lady  who  sat  in  the 
audience  (she  was  a  relative  of  mine)  said,  "I  wish  I 
had  a  big  potato;  I  would  throw  it  at  him."  There  was 
a  woman  who  believed  in  it,  and  because  a  man  who  got 
up  and  said  that  prohibition  gotten  was  not  retention, 
she  wanted  to  throw  a  potato  at  me.  If  she  had  I  would 
have  eaten  it.  But  it  is  a  fact  that  achievement  is  not 
possession;  taking  the  land  is  not  retaining  the  land.  I 
do  not  undervalue  the  endeavors  of  the  world;  I  do  not 
undervalue  the  giants  that  have  been  in  those  days. 
What  I  want  to  know  now  is,  how,  when  great  matters 
have  come  to  pass,  how  are  we  going  to  keep  the  fires 
burning?  How  are  we  going  to  keep  the  sun's  force 
from  burning  out?  How  are  we  going  to  keep  the 
world's  civilization  from  being  a  cinder?  They  say  it  is 
a  little  difficult  to  live  in  the  moon ;  you  will  either  freeze 
up  or  burn  up.  \i  you  are  in  the  shade,  you  are  re- 
frigerated, and  if  you  are  in  the  sun,  you  are  inciner- 
ated. Now,  how  are  you  going  to  keep  a  planet  from 
burning  out,  or  cooling  out,  and  I  confess  that  that  is 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  93 

what  we  are  hunting  here  tonight.  How  is  a  civilization 
bought  by  the  blood  of  God,  gotten  by  the  pureness  of 
men  and  women  who  love  the  truth,  and  who  have  told 
us,  and  have  been  glad  to  live  for  it  and  die  for  it ;  how 
is  it  going  to  be  kept?    That  is  the  question. 

It  is  a  great  matter  to  have  a  republic  at  hand;  I 
thank  God  for  it ;  I  Bless  Him  that  He  let  me  live  at  a 
time  when  a  government  of  the  people  and  by  them  is 
doing  business  in  the  world.  I  declare  to  you  that  a  few 
instances  do  not  trouble  me,  because  if  there  are  flies  in 
the  ointment  I  still  retain  the  ointment  bottle  and  all, 
and  throw  the  flies  out.  I  say  you  have  come  to  the 
wrong  place  to  settle ;  but  I  do  not  think  about  the  flies ; 
I  think  about  the  ointment.  If  a  few  Senators  get 
mixed  up,  it  don't  worry  me;  if  one  Senator  has  a  soiled 
suit  of  clothes,  a  thousand  of  them  will  be  pure.  I  do 
not  believe  when  a  trial  has  been  gone  through  and 
through  that  we  should  be  too  quick  to  make  remarks; 
and  what  I  say  is  this :  So  much  good  is  here,  so  much 
glory  is  on  us,  the  day  is  so  sweet,  the  sun  is  so  bright, 
the  flowers  are  so  beautiful  with  the  morning  dew,  the 
noon  is  coming — oh,  God,  bring  us  the  noon.  (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Here  is  American  civilization ;  it  is  beyond  a  perad- 
venture,  the  superbest  achievement  of  ^ the  planet;  the 
proudest  procedure  is  democracy,  and  the  only  thing 
that  is  before  it  in  the  story  of  our  planet  is  the  history 
and  rise  of  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ;  democracy  and 


94  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  church  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  lilHes  which  we 
wish  to  cut,  and  great  as  the  achievement  is  to  get  a 
democracy,  and  great  as  the  achievement  is  to  learn  to 
get  along  with  kings  and  to  learn  that  a  king  is  a  great 
figure  (but  he  don't  count  for  much  when  you  get  him 
figured  out) ;  great  it  is  to  learn  that,  but  great  as  that 
is,  it  is  not  as  great  as  the  love  of  Christ,  and  the  vaster 
question  is  how  are  we  going  to  keep  it?  Oh,  America, 
do  not  die!  What  will  keep  it  from  dying?  Answer: 
the  church.  Qh,  God,  keep  it  from  dying!  The  little 
red  school  house  cannot  do  the  job.  It  is  mighty  nice 
to  have  it  around,  but  it  won't  do  the  job.  I  have  grown 
up  in  the  era  of  evolution.  I  have  heard  that  ever  since 
I  was  a  kitten  and  could  mew ;  I  believe  there  is  such  a 
thing.  I  believe  in  it;  I  do  not  know  what  it  is,  but  I 
seem  to  be  as  smart  on  that  point  as  most  people.  Most 
people  who  talk  of  evolution  do  not  know  what  they  are 
talking  about.  They  elucidate  their  character  by  that 
chaste  remark.  I  have  heard  people  talk  and  have  been 
angry  with  people,  and  I  believe  calmly  that  nine  people 
out  of  ten  with  whom  I  have  spoken  confounded  evolu- 
]tion  with  procedure.  They  thought  of  a  thing  and  it 
proceeded  to  evolve;  an  ostrich  proceeds,  but  it  don't 
evolve.  We  get  some  ideas.  If  things  are  to  be,  we 
thank  God  that  they  are  so. 

What  is  the  further  effect?  The  further  effect  is 
that  evolution  cannot  be  kept  on  top  without  a  mighty 
fracas  all  the  time.     You  keep  it  on  top;  you  have  got 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  95 

cheerfully  to  take  your  man  up — let's  allow  that  evolu- 
tion put  him  up,  thrust  him  up,  put  him  up  in  the  sky. 
Who  is  going  to  stand  under  his  feet  and  hold  him  up? 
And  I  say  tonight  that  is  the  most  serious  question  of  all 
the  centuries.  What  is  the  reason  that  we  call  an  Italian 
a  "Dago?"  Answer,  because  he  did  not  stand  up  with 
Julius  Caesar.  They  did  not  call  them  *'Dagos"  in  Ju- 
lius Caesar's  time.  When  you  call  Italians  "Dagos" 
they  are  a  little  responsible  themselves,  because  they  did 
not  stand  up  with  Julius  Caesar.  No  one  would  come 
around  and  say,  "Julius,  you  are  a  Dago."  Where 
would  they  have  been  if  they  had  remarked  that  to  Ju- 
lius?    (Laughter.)      , 

The  thing  that  confronts  the  now  is  that  that  Em- 
pire, to  which  Bishop  Nuelson  made  reference,  came  in, 
sprung  in  the  story  of  the  world,  when  one  scepter 
swayed  the  planet.  What  is  the  matter  with  the  scepter  ? 
It  shriveled  in  the  wind.  Is  the  wind  stronger  than  yes- 
terday? No,  the  wind  is  not  stronger.  Has  the  scepter 
lost  its  majesty?  No,  it  is  Caesar's  scepter,  and  Caesar 
made  the  scepter.  They  tried  to  hold  the  scepter,  and 
sometimes  a  hundred  men  would  hold  the  shivering  arm 
that  held  the  scepter,  and  at  last  the  scepter  shivered  and 
broke;  that  is  the  reason  they  are  "Dagos."  They 
could  not  hold  their  own.  What  are  they  good  for,  ex- 
cept to  take  sustenance  from  America.  Who  are  Egyp- 
tians today?  They  are  relatives  of  Mr.  Pharoah,  who 
did  things  to  Mr.  Abraham's  relatives,  but  they  could 


96  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

not  do  anything  to  anybody's  relatives  now.  Why  not? 
They  cannot  hold  their  own. 

So,  here  tonight,  Bishop  Warren,  I  say,  is  this  su- 
perb country  holding  its  own? 

I  remember  the  class  in  spelling,  when  they  had  to 
stand  up.  I  stood  for  a  moment  at  the  head  of  the  class, 
a  feverish  moment,  but  the  trick  in  the  spelling  is  not  to 
get  at  the  head  of  the  class,  but  to  keep  there. 

Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name  ?  Answer,  Baby- 
Ion. 

Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Niniveh.  Oh, 
civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Media,  Persia.  Oh, 
civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Joppa.  Oh,  civilization, 
what  is  thy  name?  Phoenicia.  Or,  civilization,  what  is 
thy  name  ?  Greece.  Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name  ? 
Rome.  Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  The  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name? 
Napolean.  Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Eng- 
land. Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Gennany. 
Oh,  civilization,  what  is  thy  name?  Ans.,  America. 
(Applause.)  Like  a  star  they  shine  at  night  and  dis- 
solve. Like  a  snow  flake  in  an  angry  sea,  they  could 
not  hold  their  own.  We  are  here  tonight  on  a  problem 
of  retention  of  civilization.  That  is  our  business,  and  if 
you  know  of  any  bigger  job  than  that,  speak  to  me  about 
it  when  the  meeting  is  over;  the  holding  of  civilization 
at  its  zenith ;  it  comes  with  the  sun,  and  goes  down  with 
the  sun,  but  it  gets  up  too  early  for  most  of  the  like  of 


Rev.  Herbert   B.  Johnson,  U.  D. 
Superintendent  Japanese  Mission 


Rev.  Louis  M.  Potts,  A.  M. 
Pastor  First  CKurcli,  Pittsburg,  Kansas 


Rev.  W.  E.  Doughty,  A.  M. 
Secretary  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  97 

us;  in  the  middle  of  the  day  it  is  too  hot  for  us,  and  it 
goes  down  too  late  for  us.  How  are  you  going  to  get 
the  sun  of  civilization  to  swing  at  noon?  Some  of  you 
are  English  and  some  are  Irish.  You  have  come  to  the 
place  where  yoii  ought  to  be  Americans.  You  are  not 
Dutch  or  Irish,  and  I  am  not  Mamx,  and  when  you  (in- 
dicating Bishop  Nuelson)  said  I  was,  I  know  what  you 
are,  but  I  am  too  polite  to  tell  it.  (Laughter.)  I  am 
an  American.  (Applause.)  Here  is  the  thing  we  are 
to  consider;  how  are  we  going  to  keep  America  at  its 
best?  What  has  that  to  do  with  giants?  You  will  say, 
''He  gave  out  his  text  and  left  it."  Don't  you  worry; 
he  didn't.  He  was  laying  the  foundation  for  the  sermon. 
Now,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  ogres,  the 
giants  ?  There  is  the  giant  Greed ;  his  hand  is  horny  and 
his  face  is  leather  and  his  fingers  clutch  and  there  is  no 
blood  from  his  palm;  he  has  no  flesh  on  the  palm;  the 
skin  is  dry,  and  the  bones  are  like  a  skeleton's  bones; 
there  is  blood  all  the  while  squeezed  out ;  he  is  squeezing 
the  blood — what  blood?  The  blood  of  greed  of  human 
life.  The  blood  of  men  and  women  and  children.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  with  the  giant  Greed? 

Now,  somebody  is  saying  under  his  breath,  *'He  is 
giving  it  to  the  Trusts."  Don't  you  worry,  I  am  a 
smarter  man  than  you  think  me.  I  am  smart  enough  to 
know  that  the  Trusts  do  not  monpolize  the  Greed  of 
the  world.  We  have  to  face  that  question,  and  we  know 
we  are  as  mean  as  any  Trust  that  ought  to  be  "busted." 
Don't  you  worry  about  that. 


qS  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

I  was  traveling  on  the  Pacific  Coast  some  time  ago, 
and  I  got  out  to  refresh  my  legs.  You  always  want  to 
keep  the  main  part  of  your  intellectual  equipment  work- 
ing, and  I  was  out  refreshing  them,  and  I  went  to  buy 
some  plums  from  a  man  standing  near  the  train.  I  did 
not  care  so  much  for  the  plums,  but  I  said,  "How  many 
for  how  much?"  He  said  *'So  many  for  so  much,"  so 
handed  him  out  the  money.  I  was  trying  a  religious 
philosophical  experiment  by  an  ex-manxman.  I  gave 
him  the  full  amount  of  money,  but  I  did  not  get  the  full 
amount  of  plums.  I  counted  them  after  I  got  them  in 
the  car  and  I  ate  what  he  gave  and  abstained  from  those 
he  did  not  give  me.  (Laughter.)  You  do  not  hear 
much  about  that,  do  you  ?  Oh,  no,  Standard  Oil !  Let's 
not  think  of  Standard  Oil.  We  cannot  think  of  that 
with  its  twenty-five  per  cent.  We  will  get  along  in  our 
political  economy  if  we  quit  fussing  at  the  Trusts. 
Wouldn't  it  be  fine  to  be  rich,  if  you  were?  I  think  what 
we  want  to  know  is,  how  to  kill  the  giant  of  Greed.  Hag- 
gle, haggle.  Life  is  hard;  squeeze  it  harder.  Who 
is  doing  it?  Greed  is  doing  it.  Accursed  Greed.  Lean 
Greed.  Long-fingered  Greed.  Who  is  Greed?  The 
Greed  of  the  greedy. 

Let  me  tell  you  something  that  is  private,  and  I 
don't  want  you  to  speak  anyhing  about  it.  I  do  not 
want  all  I  know  to  be  given  to  the  public,  because  they 
would  know  as  much  as  I  do.  This  is  what  I  want  to 
say :    No  civilization  was  ever  ruined  by  the  rich  people 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  99 

— never  was — there  never  was  enough  of  them  to  ruin 
anything.  Rich  people  never  ruined  anything.  It  is  the 
common  people  that  kills  civilization  or  makes  it.  That 
is  the  thing  you  ought  to  know,  and  when  will  we  learn 
that? 

Greed,  that  brother  that  bought  three  automobiles, 
and  saved  the  world  to  the  tune  of  fifteen  dollars?  What 
was  his  name?  Greed,  Greed.  That  fellow  fussed  at 
Rockefeller.  I  don't  know  him;  I  know  his  sister-in- 
law.  He  fussed  at  Rockefeller,  and  he  eternally  remarked 
on  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  and  he  says  some  things  about 
Mr.  Huntington,  and  truck  like  that,  and  was  so  stingy 
that  God,  to  love  him,  had  to  look  away  from  him  and 
has  to  turn  his  back  on  a  lot  of  us. 

Greed!  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  giant 
Greed?  Nothing  can  master  the  giant  of  Greed  but  the 
giant  of  the  Church.  You  say  you  do  not  get  along  very 
well  ?  No,  we  do  not,  but  we  are  the  only  folks  that  get 
along  at  all.  The  stingy  fellow  will  not  have  an  easy 
time  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  We  have  been  saying  that 
for  a  thousand  years.  Peter's  mother-in-law  knew  about 
that.  All  the  pack  of  mother-in-laws  learned  it,  and 
whatever  the  mother-in-laws  know,  the  son-in-laws  get 
to  learn  for  nothing,  and  it  will  be  common  information 
before  long;  yet,  verily,  how  will  you  tackle  Greed  to 
rid  us  of  it;  the  Lord  only  knoweth;  the  Lord  under- 
stands  it. 

We  have  seen  persimmons  converted,  but  they  do 


100  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

not  convert  persimmons  in  August.  It  is  about  as  un- 
comfortable as  anything  you  ever  tried.  We  will  carry 
on  a  campaign  to  kill  the  giant  Greed.  Come  on  and 
help  us. 

Men,  what  are  we  going  to  do  with  the  giant  Lust  ? 
Lust  of  what?  Oh,  well.  Lust  of  power  that  is  not  legiti- 
mate. Oh,  well,  Lust  of  appetite  for  stimulants  that  we 
do  not  need.  Oh,  well,  Lust  of  passions  that  are  base 
and  belong  in  Hell.  What  are  you  going  to  do  with 
them? 

Now  I  will  tell  you  something — You  know  it — I 
am  only  going  to  tell  it ;  you  are  so  smart  we  don't  have 
to  amplify  things  before  you.  When  Rome  was  at  its 
brainiest,  Rome  was  at  its  rottenest.  How  are 
you  going  to  kill  the  giant  Lust?  I  will  tell  you  how: 
God  and  Christ's  Church,  God's  Church  has  got  to  kill 
him.  Now,  every  once  in  awhile  people  ask  me,  as  they 
ask  every  Minister — a  Minister  is  a  sort  of  depot  for 
people  to  put  their  question  marks  in  for  free  storage, 
and  they  have  asked  me  a  great  many  times:  "Why 
doesn't  the  Christian  Church  get  on  faster,  and  why  this 
and  that  and  the  other  grows  faster  than  the  Christian 
Church."  I  do  not  have  much  respect  for  people  that 
ask  that,  because  they  do  not  use  their  brain.  Nobody 
with  any  understanding  would  ask  why  the  Christian 
Church  does  not  get  along  faster;  you  have  got  to  clean 
up  your  ethical  standard  and  spiritual  nature  to  belong 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  loi 

to  the  Church.  The  people  we  have  in  the  Church  can- 
not lie,  cannot  steal  in  the  Church,  cannot  slander  in  the 
Church,  cannot  do  one  hundred  thousand  things  in  the 
Church  and  be  a  member  of  the  Church,  not  one  of 
them.  Every  one  of  them  is  spoken  against;  outlawed 
in  the  Church  of  God;  thank  God. 

Why  do  we  get  along  so  slow  ?  The  marvel  is  that 
we  get  on  at  all;  come  over  and  quit  your  meanness. 
Lust!  Who  is  going  to  kill  the  giant  Lust?  No  insti- 
tution but  the  Church.  Who  is  going  to  kill  the  giant 
of  Doubt?  What  is  the  name  we  call  Doubt?  Oh, 
well,  get  philosophical  about  it.  We  call  it  the  agnostic 
mood.  What  is  agnosticism?  If  we  were  big  enough 
we  could  reach  out  our  hands  and  grab  a  star;  we  could 
do  it  if  we  were  big  enough,  but  I  never  heard  of  any 
one  grabbing  a  star;  my  little  son,  when  he  was  young, 
would  reach  out  and  bawl  because  he  could  not,  but  I 
said,  "Son,  bawl  on;  that  is  your  nature;  no  one  in  this 
family  can  grab  a  star."  If  we  were  big  enough  and 
could  hold  it  up  Hke  a  candle  and  say,  "Burn  on,"  I 
would  like  to  walk  around  at  midnight  and  hold  a  star, 
and  some  one  would  say,  "Who  are  you  under  the 
light,"  I  would  say  I  am  the  fellow  that  grabbed  the 
star  and  am  using  it  for  a  candle.  If  we  were  big 
enough  we  could  grab  a  star  and  hold  it  as  a  candle. 
If  we  were  great  enough,  we  would  grab  after  God. 

Doubt!  Who  is  going  to  kill  Doubt?  Down  in 
St.  Louis,  the  other  day,  two  girls  killed  each  other  after 


I02  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

kissing  each  other,  and  they  left  a  note  saying  that  life 
was  too  hard;  there  was  a  Church  three  blocks  away, 
and  if  they  had  gone  to  the  Church  they  would  not  have 
committed  suicide.  Folks  would  not  commit  suicide  that 
go  to  church.  Why?  We  everywhere  in  the  church, 
rich  or  poor,  meet  together  and  they  are  all  equal  in  the 
church.  What  was  the  trouble  with  these  girls?  Could 
not  get  bread?  Oh  no,  that  is  nonsense.  When  you 
hear  a  woman  cannot  get  bread,  you  can  set  it  down  as 
sheer  nonsense.  Women  cannot  sometimes  get  the  kind 
of  employment  they  want,  but  domestic  service  is  the 
best  kind  of  service  that  they  can  do,  but  they  won't 
do  it  and  now  you  women  say  "Amen."  Sometimes  the 
preachers  say  the  poor  shopgirls  cannot  get  work.  If 
they  quit  the  shop  they  could  get  work  fast  enough. 
They  cannot  all  work  in  the  shops,  and  there  are  too 
many  in  the  shops  now;  that  is  the  trouble;  they  get 
neurotic.  They  see  a  crowd  go  by;  they  see  a  man  go 
by;  they  meet  him;  they  get  married;  they  get  tired  of 
each  other  and  they  get  divorced;  they  live  on  a  quiet 
street,  no  excitement,  and  that  is  the  reason  that  divorces 
are  going  on.  Those  girls  could  have  gotten  employment. 
I  remember  a  poem  I  read  years  since ;  people  were 
meeting  the  side  of  the  sea,  and  one  man  said:  "What 
have  you  lost?"  "I  have  lost  my  child."  Another  had 
lost  his  fortune,  another  had  lost  this  and  that,  and  one 
man  sighed,  and  he  looked  at  his  hands  and  his  hands 
were  wet  with  tears,  and  he  said,  "What  have  you  lost, 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  103 

friend?"  and  he  said,  'Taith,  lost  faith."  I  think  the 
"Right  of  Way"  ought  to  be  given  to  everybody  in  crea- 
tion. Why?  Because  it  is  the  most  perfect  refutation 
of  agnosticism  ever  written. 

Charley  Steele  did  not  believe,  you  remember,  did 
not  believe,  you  remember,  did  not  believe.  Finally 
Death  came  and  he  rose,  clutched  for  his  glasses;  finally 
strove  to  put  them  to  his  eyes;  Death  was  coming,  and 
he  said,  "  'scuse  me,  I  don't  think  I  have  been  introduced 
to  you,  and  I  am  going  out  where  the  fitful  wind  and 
angry  seas  are  and  no  faith.  Oh  God,  excuse  me,  I  do 
not  think  I  have  ever  been  introduced  to  you." 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  giant  of  Des- 
pair? I  was  reading  a  book  the  other  day  in  which  the 
story  was  told  of  two  men  who  were  wrestling  on  a 
door  step,  and  one  man  thought  the  door  step  led  to  a 
lawn,  and  he  saw  his  antagonist's  face  grow  white  when 
the  first  wrestler  almost  twisted  the  man  off  the  step, 
but  the  night  was  dark  and  the  wrestlers  wrought,  and 
the  wrestler  saw  a  frenzy  on  the  face  of  the  other 
wrestler  and  somehow  fear  crushed  into  the  man's  heart ; 
the  wrestler  forced  the  man  off  the  door  step.  It  was 
not  a  door  step  onto  a  lawn,  but  an  abyss  and  the  man 
tumbled,  and  with  a  cry  and  a  fearful  struggle  he 
crashed  down  to  manglement  and  death.  Despair,  with 
thy  white  face  and  broken  heart !  Who  is  going  to  save 
the  world  from  Despair?    Answer,  the  Church. 

We  are  here  to  wrestle  with  the  giants.     That  is 


I04  The  Conservation  of  Our  HI  oral  Resources 

what  we  are  here  for.  We  are  here  to  wrestle  with  the 
implacable,  the  superior,  the  demoralizer.  We  must  not 
give  over  the  struggle  I  say  here  tonight,  not  because  I 
am  a  churchman,  but  I  bless  my  God  that  I  am,  I  say, 
not  because  I  am  a  preacher  in  the  church  (I  thank  my 
God  that  they  let  me  preach  at  all),  but  I  say  tonighf 
with  some  degree  of  familiarity  with  the  history  of  the 
world,  I  say  the  solitary  way  to  maintain  the  decency 
of  the  now,  the  chasteness  of  the  now,  the  sobriety  of 
the  now,  the  desire  to  cleanse  the  Augean  stables,  the 
only  way  to  prevent  its  collapse  and  maintain  its  su- 
premacy is  by  the  church.     (Applause.) 

Men,  if  you  believe  in  the  betterment  of  the  world; 
if  you  think  the  Golden  Age  is  not  a  fitful,  feverish, 
ignus-fatuus  but  a  glorious  realization  of  tomorrow,  fight 
for  it,  wrestle  not  with  the  lesser  light,  but  against  the 
principalities  and  kingdoms  of  this  world. 

I  wish  Paul  could  come  around  here  tonight.  If 
he  could  come  around  here  tonight  and  look  at  this 
crowd,  he  would  say:  "What  crowd  is  this?  This  is 
not  an  old  man's  crowd."  The  composite  face  of  this 
crowd  is  not  an  old  body's  crowd ;  it  is  a  crowd  betwixt 
middle  age  and  youth,  and  what  does  that  mean?  To- 
morrow !  And  if  Paul  was  here  he  would  ogle,  he  would 
say,  "What  town  is  this.  Brother  Warren?"  And 
Brother  Warren,  with  that  same  splurge  I  have  heard 
him  use,  would  say,  "Denver,  Colorado."  I  never  heard 
Brother  Warren  talk  about  Denver  that  he  did  not  give 


The  Preservation  of  Our  Civilization  105 

a  kind  of  crow  and  cackle  together,  and  Brother  War- 
ren would  say  (laughter)  to  Paul,  "Denver,  Colorado," 
and  Paul  would  say,  "Is  that  near  Ephesus?"  and 
Brother  Warren  would  say,  "A  little  West."  He  would 
say  it  is  not  a  town  near  Hispania,  and  the  Bishop 
would  say,  "It  is  a  little  West  of  Hispania,"  and  Paul 
would  say,  "It  must  be  a  sea  town." 

The  wrestling  is  going  on;  it  is  not  June  yet;  it  is 
May.  What  is  better  than  May?  June  is.  It  is  not 
June,  it  is  May.  How  are  we  going  to  push  May  in 
June?  By  the  Church  of  God.  How  are  we  going  to 
keep  the  world  for  the  eternal  June?  By  this  Holy 
Book.     (Applause.) 


"THE  BLACK  MAN  IN  THE  NATION." 

REV.  I.   L.   THOMAS,  D.   D.,   BALTIMORE,    MD. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Brothers  and  Sisters:  I  am 
delighted  in  the  privilege  I  have  this  morning,  to  take 
an  humble  part  in  this  great  movement.  I  am  to  speak 
in  reference  to  the  black  man  in  the  nation.  Historically, 
we  are  to  consider  first,  how  the  black  man  got  in  the 
nation.  He  certainly  did  not  get  in  of  his  own  accord. 
He  was  brought  here  as  personal  property,  landing  at 
Jamestown,  Va.,  in  1619.  Looking  back  over  the  years, 
we  believe  there  was  a  providence  in  his  coming,  in 
development,  in  the  privilege  of  association,  in  drinking 
from  the  reservoir  of  this  great  nation  in  its  advance- 
ment. What  the  black  man  has  done,  these  years  he 
has  been  upon  these  shores,  and  his  sympathy  towards 
his  brothers  and  sisters  in  his  far-off  Fatherland,  we 
are  glad  to  report  to  you,  and  appreciate  the  privilege  of 
saying  a  few  words  in  reference  to  these  eleven  millions 
of  our  people. 

It  might  be  interesting  to  reflect  as  to  the  purpose 
of  the  black  man's  development  in  this  republic.  We 
hear  a  theory  that  the  Negro  be  exported  to  Africa. 
That  would  be  the  biggest  job  America  might  undertake, 


The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation  107 

to  get  the  black  man  out.  He  is  coming  in,  in  child 
life,  about  as  rapidly  as  anybody  else,  and  would  need  a 
great  many  ships  constantly  taking  him  over.  The  task 
would  seem  too  great  to  be  undertaken  and  it  looks  as 
if,  in  God*s  purpose,  he  is  in  the  nation  to  stay. 

What  has  he  done  since  arriving  in  this  land.  In 
the  first  place  he  contributed  service,  in  the  days  when 
the  colonies  groaned  under  the  burden  and  tyranny  of 
the  mother  country.  When  those  humble  few  lifted 
their  voice  to  God,  for  relief,  the  answer  seemed  to  be, 
"The  liberty  you  should  enjoy,  you  must  secure  in  con- 
flict." Then  came  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  black 
man  contributed  service  that  the  colonies  might  win 
their  independence,  and  the  first  man  to  shed  his  blood 
in  that  cause  was  a  black  man. 

Then  came  another  scene  in  the  life  of  the  nation, 
of  intense  interest.  The  nation  seemingly  had  become 
sundered.  The  stars  and  stripes  were  not  floating  over 
all.  To  keep  the  nation  united  required  the  shedding  of 
seas  of  blood. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  of  blessed  memory,  made  a  call 
to  the  boys  of  the  north,  who  shouted  in  response,  "We 
are  coming  to  preserve  the  union  300,ocx>  strong.'*  Later 
the  president  issued  another  call  for  volunteers.  The 
black  man  answered  100,000  strong,  from  the  rice 
swamps,  the  cotton  fields,  everywhere  in  our  great 
southland.  As  little  as  you  may  consider  it,  he  did  a 
little  toward  helping  Old  Glory  to  float  again  over  this 
nation. 


io8  The  Conservation  of  Otir  Moral  Resources 

When  England  sought  to  test  the  republic's  ability 
to  exist  as  a  nation,  in  the  war  of  1812,  causing  this 
country  to  pass  through  one  of  the  greatest  trials  it  ever 
experienced,  the  outcome  of  which  decided  whether  the 
United  States  should  become  a  world  power.  The 
black  man  helped  to  give  this  nation  a  place  as  one  of 
the  great  world  powers,  that  should  uplift  the  world  to 
Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  war  of  1846-8,  when  Mexico  tried  to  extend 
her  boundary  to  include  Texas  and  part  of  Louisiana,  the 
black  man  of  the  South  was  called  from  everywhere, 
that  he  might  help  in  the  conflict  against  Mexico.  The 
Lone  Star  state  and  other  border  lands  were  saved  for- 
ever as  part  of  this  nation. 

We  have  endeavored  to  do  a  little,  and  before  de- 
ciding the  black  man  should  leave  America,  remember 
he  has  been  loyal  to  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  tried  in  an 
humble  way,  to  prove  worthy  of  a  place  here. 

He  has  borne  his  burdens  with  patience,  waiting  on 
God  and  the  nation  to  give  him  a  man's  chance.  We  are 
not  discouraged.  As  long  as  this  church  is  for  humanity, 
regardless  of  race  or  color,  the  black  man  in  your  land 
will  look  yonder,  with  his  face  toward  the  Christ,  and 
sing  a  song  of  trusting  anticipation,  that  his  day  will 
eventually  come. 

The  black  man  has  made  progress  here.  We  could 
not  have  made  it  by  ourselves.  We  had  270  years  of 
slavery  and  when  tlie  Emancipation  Proclamation  went 


The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation  109 

into  effect,  four  million  slaves  were  ignorant,  could  not 
read,  had  had  no  chance  to  learn.  We  could  not  have 
made  the  progress  had  it  not  been  for  blessed  men  and 
women  you  represent,  and  your  fathers,  who  lifted  us 
up  when  we  could  not  help  ourselves.  Remember,  there 
are  800,000  black  folk  today,  who  bear  scars  of  slavery. 
In  this  brief  period  of  opportunity,  the  contribution  erf 
the  Negro  in  all  walks  of  life  is  an  evidence  there  is 
something  in  him,  and  by  the  help  of  Grod,  with  a  chance 
like  other  men,  it  will  come  out.  In  centuries  yet  to 
come,  you  will  be  able  to  see  the  black  man  coming,  with 
a  cheerful  song,  saying  to  you,  representing  the  other 
races,  "We  are  with  you  to  uphold  the  best  traditions  of 
America,  and  will  prove  true  to  the  flag,  any  time  the 
black  man  is  needed.** 

The  outlook  for  missionary  endeavor  is,  first,  that 
the  Negro  must  be  considered  an  integral  part  of  the 
nation.  To  recognize  all  others,  and  exclude  him,  or 
exile  him  to  the  outskirts,  is  not  the  purpose  of  God,  nor 
the  teaching  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  and  other 
churches.  As  miserable  as  we  are,  we  are  here.  If  you 
want  your  name  to  lead  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  the 
future,  you  cannot  do  it  unless  you  help  lift  up  these 
eleven  million  Negroes  under  the  flag. 

It  would  be  unwise  to  leave  the  black  man  to  him- 
self. We  are  nothing  but  a  "child"  race.  We  have  had 
just  forty-five  years  to  come  where  we  are.  Those  to 
whom  I  speak  represent  an  opportunity  of  a  thousand 


I  lo  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

years,  in  development  and  civilization.  To  expect  us, 
just  forty  years  old  in  the  civilization  of  the  world,  to 
be  able  to  see  from  your  angle,  and  stand  where  you  do, 
in  my  humble  judgment  is  a  requirement  beyond  the 
ability  of  a  child  race.  Give  us  time,  and  by  the  help 
of  God,  we  will  delight  you  in  future  by  a  race 
development ! 

It  is  a  great  missionary  field.  O,  if  you  could  see 
those  black  men  in  the  South !  There  are  some  of  the 
most  heroic  men  for  righteousness  you  could  find  in  the 
world.  I  am  delighted  that  Bishop  Cranston  is  present. 
I  have  been  with  him  in  several  conferences  in  the  South. 
As  I  looked  at  the  man  of  God,  dealing  with  us  kindly, 
not  with  the  spirit  of  expecting  us  in  forty-five  years  to 
be  up  to  his  vision — like  a  father,  leading  all,  in  every 
detail  of  helpfulness — I  said,  "God  bless  Bishop  Cran- 
ston!** May  he  live  long!  Representing  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  because  we  are  lonely,  and  not  up  to  the 
point  of  life  others  have  reached,  he  recognized  we  are 
"in  making,"  and  ought  to  be  helped  in  every  way. 

The  Negro  should  be  encouraged.  Any  man  en- 
couraged will  try  to  do  better.  To  discourage  an  in- 
dividual, saying,  "You  can*t  be  anything,"  doesn't 
help  him. 

Sometimes  we  find  this  situation :  Three  boys  met, 
a  Hebrew,  American  and  N«gro.  It  was  asked  of  the 
Jewish  boy,  "What  are  you  going  to  do?"  "I  will  be 
a  merchant.    My  fathers  were."    They  asked  the  Amer- 


The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation  1 1 1 

ican  boy,  and  he  said,  "I  am  going  to  be  a  lawyer  or 
statesman,  as  my  fathers  before  me  were."  They  asked 
Sambo,  "What  are  you  going  to  be?"  He  said,  "Fse 
gwine  to  be  nothing.  My  mother  said  I  would  be  noth- 
ing, and  that  my  father  before  me  was  nothing,  and 
nothing  from  nothing  leaves  nothing." 

If  we  are  given  a  little  encouragement  and  the 
possibility  of  the  race  is  recognized,  there  isn't  any  doubt 
we  will  be  able  to  take  our  place  like  others  in  this 
nation. 

Let  me  add — don't  believe  all  you  read  in  news- 
papers about  us.  Highly  colored  things  are  written. 
Many  times  the  offender  is  not  a  black  man  in  fact,  but 
another  man  whose  face  has  been  blackened. 

The  American  Magazine  ran  some  strong  articles, 
giving  plain  facts  about  the  conditions  in  the  South,  and 
put  on  the  May  number  a  frontispiece  of  a  little  Negro 
boy,  about  12  years  old,  with  the  world  upon  him,  and 
the  little  Negro  was  trying  to  keep  the  world  from 
crushing  him.  Little  by  little  God  is  helping  this  Negro 
child  to  develop  strength,  physically,  mentally  and 
morally,  and  by  and  by,  with  the  help  of  such  men  and 
women  as  you,  scattered  over  this  land,  and  the  effort  of 
the  black  man  himself,  we  will  be  lifted  up  and  stand 
with  you  in  every  interest  for  the  welfare  of  the  nation. 

We  believe  in  OLD  GLORY!  When  the  Rough 
Riders  were  being  cut  down  by  the  sharp  shooters  of  the 
Spanish    army,     and     would     have     been    ruthlessly 


112  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

slaughtered,  every  man  in  the  9th  and  loth  cavalry,  they 
saw  their  brothers  in  distress  and  made  a  charge  in  that 
direction.  The  Spaniards  saw  them  coming,  falling  as 
they  were  shot  down,  but  moving  rapidly  over  their  fal- 
len comrades  to  help  rescue  the  Rough  Riders.  It  was 
said  they  looked  like  a  black  cloud  rising  to  the  Span- 
iards. They  were  able  to  save  the  rest  of  the  Rough 
Riders,  and  preserve  that  great  man,  Theodore  Roose- 
velt, to  this  nation. 

It  was  a  black  man  that  planted  Old  GJory  on  the 
Spanish  fort,  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  of  that  memorable 
year  of  the  Spanish-American  war.  We  believe  in  Old 
Glory  and  will  stand  by  her.  The  black  man  has  never 
supported  insurrection,  never  proven  disloyal  anywhere. 
He  has  been  true  to  the  creed  of  this  nation. 

We  believe,  too,  in  another  flag,  bearing  the  colors 
of  Humanity.  Old  Glory,  great  as  it  is,  might  fade 
away  in  the  providence  of  God,  but  one  flag  will  ever 
stand,  its  colors  never  fading  away — the  flag  of  human 
liberty,  having  five  colors,  white,  black,  red,  brown  and 
yellow.  The  black  may  be  a  little  dim,  but  God  will 
keep  rubbing  out  the  obscuring  dust  of  the  years  that 
are  past,  until  you  see  us  with  clearness  as  one  of  the 
colors  of  this  flag. 

You  cannot  eliminate  us,  because  you  haven't  any 
real  flag  of  human  liberty  without  the  black  stripe. 

I  thank  you  for  this  hearing  this  morning.  My 
people  cry  unto  God  and  the  noble  people  of  the  land. 


The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation  1 1 3 

simply  for  a  man's  chance;  that  is  all.  Help  us  to  get  it, 
and  since  we  have  helped  to  make  it  possible  to  have  the 
stars  and  stripes  over  all  the  land  today,  we  ask  that 
the  stars  and  stripes  protect  us,  now.  The  Japanese,  the 
Chinese,  have  a  government  and  a  flag  behind  them. 
The  Italian,  the  Bohemian,  every  race  represented  here, 
has  a  flag  behind  it.  We  have  no  flag  but  Old  Glory. 
Will  the  flag  for  which  my  father  bled  and  died,  protect 
us,  and  help  to  get  us  a  man's  opportunity?  The  Chris- 
tian people  of  the  republic  must  largely  answer  that 
question.       (Amen.) 

Bishop  Cranston  :  It  seems  a  little  thing  to  ask, 
simply  a  man's  chance.  What  less  could  these  people  ask. 
When  I  think  of  the  way  they  are  dealt  with  in  cartoons, 
I  feel  ashamed  for  American  journalism.  There  are 
types  of  Africans,  as  of  white  people.  There  is  a  com- 
ical side  to  the  African  character,  as  there  is  to  the  best 
people  the  world  knows  anything  about. 

The  first  year  of  the  war,  1861,  there  came  to  me  a 
boy  of  yellow  color,  who  had  been  at  school  in  a  little 
town  known  as  a  station  on  the  underground  railway. 
His  name  was  Holland,  and  he  wanted  to  be  the  servant 
and  cook  of  my  captain  and  myself.  We  took  him.  I 
cannot  say  much  for  him  as  a  servant,  or  cook,  but  a 
year  or  two  passed  by  and  Holland  disappeared.  Next 
time  I  saw  him,  he  was  in  the  Republican  National  con- 
vention at  Cincinnati,  that  nominated  Mr.  Hayes,  and  I 
got  a  little  of  his  history.    Disappearing  from  the  office 


1 14  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

of  cook  and  servant,  that  he  had  not  filled  with  great  ac- 
ceptability, he  re-appeared  as  a  soldier,  wearing  the  uni- 
form of  the  men  fighting  the  battles  of  the  union.  When 
every  commanding  officer  of  his  regiment  had  been  shot 
down,  acting  as  Sergeant  Major,  Holland  gathered  up 
the  colors  and  carried  them  on.  There  he  was,  represent- 
ing some  district  in  the  National  convention,  and  I  saw 
what  was  the  matter — he  had  too  much  man  about  him  to 
be  satisfied  in  a  menial  position.  Say,  that  is  mean,  isn't 
it,  for  a  black  man  to  feel  that  way  ?  Lots  of  people  think 
so,  and  say  he  ought  to  be  content  to  black  boots  all  the 
days  of  his  life.  I  begrude  no  man  his  chance.  It  is  a 
small  nature  that  can  take  no  larger  view  of  the  problems 
of  God  and  humanity  than  that. 

Let  me  tell  you  something,  if  you  fancy  all  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  hold  the  Negro  in  contempt,  it  is  not 
true.  It  is  not  true  of  the  church  that  bears  our  name 
down  there.  I  was  talking  to  Bishop  Haas  last  week,  in 
Baltimore,  last  meeting  held  there,  in  regard  to  connec- 
tions between  the  churches.  He  said,  ^'Whatever  hap- 
pens, we  never  can  abandon  the  Negro."  Some  think  we 
are  going  to  throw  the  Negro  overboard,  if  there  ever 
should  be  a  union  between  churches  North  and  South. 
Speaking  for  his  charge,  this  man  says,  "Whatever  hap- 
pens we  must  never  abandon  the  Negro."  The  situation 
of  the  Negro  in  this  country  is  exceedingly  pathetic. 
The  worst  of  it  is,  he  had  no  responsibility  for  bringing 
about  his  attitude  toward  national  affairs.  He  was 
brought  here  by  compulsion.     He  has  simply  endured 


The  Black  Man  in  the  Nation  115 

what  came  to  him.  He  is  doing-  his  best  now  to  make 
the  best  of  a  bad  situation.  Methodism  cannot  abandon 
him  to  himself,  even  after  these  forty-five  years  of 
progress.  If  ever  you  hear  it  said  there  is  any  dispo- 
sition on  the  part  of  Methodists,  whatever  may  happen 
to  us,  to  turn  the  black  man  down  and  refuse  to  help  him 
in  his  march  toward  better  things,  I  think  you  may  safely 
contradict  that.  It  is  not  true.  You  have  listened  to  one 
of  those  black  men  this  morning.  I  guess  God  made  him 
an  orator.  What  would  you  think  of  some  of  those  in- 
sulting, degrading  "comical"  cartoons  of  this  man,  as 
an  orator? 

I  heard  a  story  of  one  of  our  Negro  Methodist 
preachers  who  went  to  another  church.  Asked  why,  he 
said,  "I  wanted  to  go  to  a  church  which  was  more  orderly 
and  put  on  a  little  more  style."  "What  did  you  find  that 
is  more  orderly  and  stylish?"  "Why,  that  church  I  be- 
longs to  now  burns  Roman  candles  and  insect  powder  on 
the  altar."  (Laughter.)  That  may  be  laughable,  but  it 
indicates  a  disposition  to  keep  fully  up  with  the  white 
brethren,  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  high  church  as  well  as 
other  things. 

Dr.  Coker:  On  a  Kansas  railroad  train,  behind 
me  were  two  colored  women,  evidently  mothers.  One 
said,  "I  have  six  children.  Five  are  all  right,  but  there 
has  to  be  one  white  sheep  in  a  family."  The  man  you 
just  heard  is  not  a  "white  sheep,"  in  that 
sense,  thank  God.  Although  his  face  may  be  dark,  he 
is  one  of  God's  noble'iTien."  Now  we  are  to  hear  from 
brother.  Louis  M.  Potts. 


'THE  JEW,  HIS  FUTURE/' 

REV.  LOUIS  M.  POTTS,   M.  D. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Brothers  :  I  have  the  honor 
to  represent  the  people  from  whom  the  Christian  church 
received  her  Bible,  her  inception,  her  God  and  her  Christ. 
In  view  of  that  tremendous  obligation,  it  ought  to  be 
impossible  that  in  any  Christian  community  there  should 
be  the  least  prejudice  against  these  people.  I  am  aware 
that  in  some  places,  among  some  people,  the  Jew  has  all 
the  recognition  he  might  crave,  and  in  the  abstract,  is 
considered  among  the  choicest  of  peoples,  but  among  the 
majority  I  find  a  prejudice  against  the  race  in  whose 
veins  flow  the  same  blood  that  was  in  the  veins  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  not  that  I  feel  the  least  degree  of  shame 
of  Hebrew  blood,  indeed,  rather  the  opposite,  for  if  any 
one  has  a  right  to  be  proud  of  origin,  it  is  the  Hebrew. 
I  am  reminded  of  a  citizen  who  never  lost  an  opportunity 
to  relate  that  one  of  his  ancestors  on  his  father's  side 
was  present  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
signed.  A  Jew  replied,  'That  is  fine,  but  my  ancestors 
were  very  much  present  when  the  Ten  Commandments 
were  given,  not  simply  on  one  side  of  the  family,  but 
on  both  sides."    I  lament  there  is  a  prejudice  against  the 


The  Jew,  His  Future  1 1 7 

Jews  and  am  not  here  to  add  to  it.  I  would  not  say 
an  unkind  word;  they  are  still  my  people. 

The  people  known  as  the  Jews  have  a  glorious  past. 
Although  I  am  not  here  to  speak  of  the  past.  I  am  to  act 
the  prophet,  and  it  is  a  difficult  role.  It  is  part  of  the  Home 
Missionary  problem;  and  I  am  anxious  you  shall  get  my 
viewpoint.  I  am  to  speak  about  the  Jew  and  his  future. 
For  the  last  2,500  years,  the  Jew  has  been  a  wanderer 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  has  been  an  omnipresent, 
ubiquitous  individual,  a  peaceful  citizen,  but  always  ac- 
tive, and  agressive.  Cities  have  walled  him  within  cer- 
tain bounderes.  Some  nations  have  built  walls  about 
themselves  to  keep  out  other  people,  but  the  Jew  has 
never  been  entirely  walled  in,  or  walled  out.  Even  in 
China  the  Jew  has  found  a  resting  place  inside  the  walls. 
When  General  Grant  made  his  tour  around  the  world, 
some  one  asked  him  the  most  remarkable  thing  that  had 
come  under  his  observation  and  he  replied,  ''the  most  re- 
markable thing  was  that  over  in  China  I  saw  a  Jew 
and  Chinaman  doing  business  together  and  the  China- 
man was  getting  the  better  of  the  Jew." 

What  is  the  future  of  this  people?  More  Jews  live 
today  than  ever  before  in  history.  You  recall  that  for 
centuries  the  Jew  has  been  persecuted  among  all  natioas. 
During  the  last  attempt  of  Rome  to  disperse  them — an 
attempt  that  succeeded — over  one  million  Jewish  people 
fell  by  the  sword.  Recalling  all  this,  and  taking  my 
statement,  based   upon  the  book,   that  there  are  more 


1 1 8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Jews  today  than  ever  before  in  the  world's  history,  you 
will  understand  the  virility  and  power   of    this  people. 

What  is  to  be  their  future?  There  is  an 
answer  that  claims  to  be  Biblical.  We  are  told  the 
Bible  promise  is  unto  the  seed  of  Abraham  forever. 
They  are  the  "Chosen  people"  and  everything  shall  be 
well  with  them.  I  am  here  to  disabuse  any  mind  of 
that  idea.  Any  theory  of  a  chosen  people,  enervates  the 
Christian  church.  There  is  no  chosen  people  in  God's 
plan.  The  idea  God  would  select  one  family  or  tribe, 
giving  them  everything,  and  denying  others,  is  an  in- 
dictment against  God's  fairness.  God  is  fair.  All 
through  history  the  Jews  have  stumbled  over  this 
thought.  The  prophet  said,  "The  soul  that  sinneth  it 
shall  die"  whether  Jew  or  Gentile.  The  Pharisees  were 
complaining  and  Jesus  said,  "You  are  children  of  the 
Dfevil,"  whereupon  they  were  much  offended.  They 
wrapped  their  cloaks  about  them,  and  said,  "Don't  you 
know  we  have  Abraham  to  be  our  father?"  The  Lord 
Jesus,  rising,  in  his  indignation,  said  that  "God  is  able 
to  make  out  of  these  stones  children  unto  Abraham." 
There  is  no  chosen  people  except  as  people  choose  them- 
selves, by  character  and  deed. 

God  did  use  the  Jews,  remarkably,  for  his  aims. 
God  honored  them  because  they  had  capacity,  were  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual.  But  when  the  Jews  sought  to  confine 
the  wine  of  the  new  Gospel  in  the  old  bottles  of  the  faith 
which  was  Jewish,  and  would  rule  out  the  claims  of  the 


The  Jew,  His  Future  119 

Gentile  peoples,  God  had  to  say,  "Ye  are  rejected,"  and 
they  have  been  rejected  as  the  chosen  people  since 
that  day. 

Who  are  the  "chosen  people  ?"  If  we  are  to  use  that 
expression,  the  chosen  people  today  are  those  in  the 
Christian  church,  and  we  shall  be,  as  long,  and  as  long 
only,  as  we  are  missionary  in  our  purpose  and  evange- 
listic in  our  activities.  When  the  Christian  church  shall 
say,  "Now  we  are  well  enshrined  in  the  respect  of  the 
world,  we  shall  not  mix  with  the  slums  of  the  earth, 
and  shall  build,  for  ourselves,  high  spires,  and  splendid 
edifies,  somewhere  in  the  suburbs  of  cities,  and  include 
only  the  select,"  then  the  Lord  shall  say  to  us,  "Ye  are 
rejected  from  being  my  chosen  people." 

There  is  another,  the  answer  economic,  the  answer 
philanthropic,  an  answer  in  one  word — "Zionism,"  a 
word  to  conjure  by.  It  seeks  to  make  out  of  Palestine 
a  Jewish  commonwealth,  of  Jerusalem  a  Jewish  capital. 
It  is  a  dream  beautiful — ^but  a  dream. 

I  have  time  to  state  but  two  reasons  why  Zionism 
must  fail.  First,  the  better  class  of  the  Jews  won't  go. 
You,  from  the  towns  of  this  conference,  ask  your  cloth- 
ing merchant  when  he  plans  to  go  to  Palestine.  He  will 
laugh.  If  in  Palestine,  or  as  Zangwill  and  others  would 
have  it.  South  Africa,  or  South  America,  if  in  any  of 
those  three  countries,  should  be  established  a  Hebrew 
state,  the  better  class  of  Jews  would  not  go.  They  are 
doing  very  well  in  America. 


1 20  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Second,  the  Jew  is  physically  incompetent  for  pio- 
neer work.  For  centuries  he  has  been  housed  up  in  tene- 
ments. Five  million  live  in  Russia,  in  conditions  diffi- 
cult for  you  to  believe.  Of  all  attempts  to  colonize  the 
Jew,  only  one  has  been  at  all  successful,  and  that  but  in 
limited  degree  in  the  Province  of  Kherson,  Russia, 
where  Czar  Nicholas  established  an  agricultural  col- 
ony in  1804. 

You  ask,  "What  is  to  become  of  the  Jew?"  I  be- 
lieve that  under  God  the  Jew  is  to  be  assimilated  by  the 
strong  Christian  civilization  of  America.  You  say, 
'The  wish  is  father  to  the  thought."  I  grant  that ;  why 
should  not  the  wish  be  in  my  heart.  But  the  wish  is 
not  the  only  reason  for  my  statement.  If  you  say  that 
for  centuries  the  Jew  has  resisted  assimilation,  I  but 
call  your  attention  to  Hebraic  history.  You  will  re- 
member that  after  the  death  of  Solomon,  the  ten  north- 
ern tribes  seceded  from  Judah  and  set  up  a  separate 
government.  The  Old  Testament  records  the  stormy 
history  of  these  Iraelites.  It  is  a  record  of  a  wandering 
away  from  the  laws  of  God  and  the  chapter  ends  with 
Assyria,  the  conqueror. 

Assyria  scattered  the  Israelites  among  her  several 
states  and  since  then  the  question  is  often  heard,  ''What 
has  become  of  the  ten  tribes?  They  ceased  to  exist. 
Why?  Because  in  the  first  place,  they  lost  racial  con- 
sciousness. In  the  second  place  they  had  not  the  pro- 
tection of  the  peculiar  customs  Ezekial  built  up,  in  the 


The  Jew,  His  Future  1 2 1 

second  captivity,  and  in  the  third  place  they  allowed  in- 
termarriage, until  they  were  not  a  Jewish  people  but  a 
mixture  of  many  peoples.  Those  familiar  with  Amer- 
ican conditions  know  that  the  process  that  destroyed  the 
Kingdom  of  Israel  is  operative  in  America. 

There  are  two  million  Jews  in  this  country.  If  the 
present  ratio  of  increase  continues  for  another  quarter 
century,  we  shall  have  more  Jews  here  than  called  Solo- 
mon king.  Solomon  only  had  seven  million  subjects  in 
the  climax  of  Jewish  history. 

I  said  the  Jew  is  to  be  assimilated.  The  problem 
is,  shall  the  Jew  be  Americanized  by  non-Christian 
civilization,  or  be  Christianized  by  a  wholesome  American 
civilization  ? 

The  Jew  has  been  persecuted,  and  hence  is  clannish  to 
the  extreme.  To  his  credit  let  it  be  said  that  he  has 
not  been  swerved  from  loyalty  to  Judaism  by  any  perse- 
cution. Had  he  been  treated  kindly  I  believe  that  long 
ago  the  Jew  would  have  turned  to  the  Christian  Gbspel. 
Here  in  America,  under  kindly  toleration,  the  Jew  is 
less  a  Jew  than  ever  before. 

There  is  in  operation  in  this  land  a  process  that  I 
believe  even  now  is  giving  the  church  its  great  oppor- 
tunity. 

Note  the  condition  of  the  Jewish  churches.  There 
are  two  churches  now,  with  a  difference  more  radical, 
between  the  Reform  and  Orthodox,  than  between  the 
most  radical  Catholic  and  Protestant.     Dr.   Singer  in- 


T  22  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

sists  the  Jew  is  losing  racial  consciousness  already,  under 
the  reformed  church.  The  reformed  Jew  is  not  as  good 
a  Jew  as  I  am  and  I  am  a  Christian.  The  in- 
fluence operating  most  effectively  in  undermining  racial 
consciousness  is  the  matter  of  education.  The  Jew 
loves  learning  as  no  other  people.  In  our  high  schools 
and  universities  there  is  a  larger  proportion  of  Jews 
than  one  would  expect  from  their  relative  number.  I 
am  told  there  are  so  many  Jews  in  Columbia  University 
that  the  real  reason  for  abolishing  football  in  that  in- 
stitution was  that  the  Jewish  students  objected  to 
handling  the  "pigskin." 

I  started  school  life  a  lad  of  9,  and  the  first  days 
remember  the  fear  with  which  I  started.  Somewhere 
I  had  received  the  impression  that  the  Gentile  enjoyed 
nothing  better  than  the  maltreatment  of  the  Jew. 

I  have  a  picture  in  mind  that  grows  more  vivid 
with  the  years.  The  background  is  a  Russian  yard,  on 
a  hill,  the  mob  coming  in  at  the  front  gate,  and  the 
mother  fleeing  with  her  youngsters  to  a  neighboring 
com  field,  where  they  hide.  With  terrified  hearts  the 
mother  and  youngsters  see  their  home  demolished.  The 
feather  beds,  even,  are  torn,  the  feathers  flying  in  the 
air,  and  in  the  road  people  are  being  murdered.  Why? 
Because  they  were  Hebrews !  The  Jew  has  reason  to  hate 
the  Christian  because  he  has  been  informed — and  the 
Russian  Greek  church  by  its  conduct  does  not  contradict 
it — ^that  the  church  of  Christ  stands  for  that  kind  of 


The  Jew  His  Future  123 

treatment.  But  when  the  Jew  comes  here  and  learns  that 
Americans  are  kindly  in  heart,  that  prejudice  fades 
away.  It  must  fade.  EvangeHstic  effort  is  powerless 
otherwise. 

The  wall  of  peculiar  custom  falls  down  under  the 
process  of  education.  And  the  social  relations  which 
our  school  system  fosters  leads  to  intermarriage.  I 
traveled  recently  from  Davenport  to  Dubuque  with  a 
Jewish  salesman,  60  years  old,  who  said  his  son  married 
a  Gentile  girl,  and  his  daughter  was  being  waited  on  by 
a  Gentile  lad,  and  he  confided  in  me  he  had  no  objections 
to  the  union.  Marriage  between  Jew  and  Gentile  is  so 
rapidly  increasing  that  the  leaders  of  Judaism  are 
alarmed. 

The  same  Jewish  salesman  said,  *T  have  a  young 
daughter  going  to  Presbyterian  Sunday  school.  Recently 
she  said  she  did  not  want  to  go  any  more.  She  ex- 
plained that  the  teacher,  a  woman,  asked  this  question  of 
her  class,  'Who  are  the  most  hated  of  all  peoples?'  The 
answer  was,  The  Jews.'  "  The  tender-hearted  lass  went 
weeping  to  her  home,  and  did  not  want  to  go  any  more. 
I  do  not  blame  her.  If  I  were  the  Pastor  of  that  good 
woman — I  am  sure  she  did  it  thoughtlessly — she  would 
apologize  to  that  family,  or  no  longer  teach  in  the  Sun- 
day school.  We  have  enough  prejudice  in  the  world. 
We  cannot  win  the  Jew  by  hating  him.  It  is  said,  "He 
killed  our  Christ."  He  killed  his  Christ,  and  has  suf- 
fered for  it ;  but  I  am  aware,  that  in  this  good  land  there 


1 24  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

are  Christian  people  who,  if  the  Christ  came,  would  cry, 
"Crucify  him!"  Do  not  throw  stones  at  the  Jew,  my 
friends.  Let  us  be  tender  and  kind  with  him,  for  I  be- 
lieve in  the  coming  quarter  century  we  shall  be  opening 
closed  eyes  and  the  Jew  will  come  unto  his  Christ. 

Dr.  Coker:  I  am  sure  it  is  with  patriotic  hearts 
that  we  meet  tonight,  realizing  the  great  responsibilities 
upon  us.  America  never  had  in  all  history,  so  much 
to  do  and  so  large  a  field  to  cover.  Sometimes,  when 
we  have  been  shouting  our  huzzahs  for  the  American 
flag,  we  have  forgotten  some  other  things.  God  save 
America!  The  world  needs  America.  Christ  needs 
America.  Shall  He  have  America?  God  help  us  to  bring 
this  thing  to  pass.  Our  country  has  been  broadened  in 
recent  years,  and  extends  across  the  seas  now,  to  posses- 
sions that  are  ours  by  force  of  conflicts  in  the  past,  ours 
to  evangelize,  and  to  save  the  American  flag  that  is  over 
them.  They  are  Home  Missions  and  therefore  I  intro- 
duce with  great  pleasure,  and  I  am  sure  to  your  great 
profit,  Dr.  Benjamin  S.  Haywood. 


OUR  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS. 

REV.   DR.   BEN  J.    S.    HAYWOOD,   SUPERINTENDENT   OF 
MISSIONS  IN   PORTO  RICO. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  I  am 
happy  to  greet  the  representatives  of  the  church,  than 
which  there  has  been  none  more  loyal  in  special  gifts  to 
the  flag  I  represent.  I  come  tonight  to  report,  if  you 
please,  and  announce  something  of  the  dividends  realized 
by  the  investment  made.  Methinks  not  the  least  is  this 
splendid  conference,  joining  hands  with  Rock  River  and 
Michigan,  in  the  education  of  a  lad  known  now  through- 
out the  church,  because  of  his  heroic  endeavor  in  mere 
childhood,  and  who,  if  I  mistake  not,  will  be  widely 
known  by  the  service  his  splendid  manhood  will  ultimately 
bring  to  the  church. 

Our  island  possessions  are  three  great  divisions. 
You  will  not  expect  me  to  dwell  upon  the  Philippine  or 
Hawaiian  group.  Conditions  are  common  and  in  very 
large  measure  much  the  same,  but  I  do  tonight  wish  to 
speak  of  a  race  who  have  had  the  **charred  black  end  of 
centuries  as  their  portion — territorially  small,  and  yet 
history  reveals  that  many  of  the  greatest  powers  and  in- 
fluences have  come  from  small  territories.    Bohemia,  one 


1 26  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

of  the  smallest  of  the  European  countries,  diamond- 
shaped,  hidden  there  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  afforded  the 
ring  wherein  Frederick  the  Great  won  the  fame  that 
makes  him  a  world  figure.  Therefore,  you  will  view,  as 
worthy  your  attention,  this  island  whose  shores  are 
washed  by  the  waters  of  the  Carribean,  famed  by  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes'  Chambered  Nautilus,  a  land  almost  we 
might  say  of  the  lunar  rainbow.  It  was  my  privilege  to 
see,  a  few  weeks  ago,  at  12  130  at  night,  this  bow  of 
promise  yonder  in  God's  sky.  I  am  happy  to  speak  to 
people  who  recognize  those  living  in  that  far-off  land,  as 
a  people  progressing  and  advancing.  You  are  not  like 
the  lad  I  saw  years  ago,  when  visiting  the  central  Illinois 
conference.  At  the  end  of  the  railroad  platform  where  I 
arrived  was  a  typical  American  boy.  He  was  surprised 
I  did  not  know  the  church  location  and  I  explained  I  was 
a  stranger.  He  asked,  'Where  do  you  live?"  "In  Porto 
Rico."  "Porto  Rico.  Gee,  ye's  a  heathen,  then,  ain't 
you?"  I  represent  people  who  have  striven  for  cen- 
turies, who  have  never  known  any  chance  worthy  the 
name,  until  America  gave  it  to  them.  The  vegetation  I 
hold  in  my  hand  explains  in  some  measure  the  situation. 
Those  who  think  they  are  competent  to  know  say  this 
identical  vegetation  is  described  in  the  story  of  the  prod- 
igal son,  as  the  husks  on  which  the  prodigal  fed  in  the 
foreign  country.  It  is  very  nourishing  for  swine  and  is 
oftimes  in  West  Indies  the  only  food  that  the  swine  eat. 
When  green,  the  hog  can  easily  open  the  outer  covering 


Our  Insular  Possessions  127 

and  the  kernel  within  is  very  nutritious  for  swine.  It 
illustrates  the  food  given  these  people  for  400  years  by 
what  I  am  compelled  to  say  is  a  perverted  form  of 
Christianity.  The  fruitage  of  that  food  can  best  be 
realized  when  I  announce  to  you  that  after  four  centuries 
of  such  a  diet,  the  Roman  Catholic  church  turned  over 
to  the  United  States  twelve  years  ago,  one  public  school 
building,  and  in  the  entire  islands  but  500  schools,  all  fee 
schools,  nearly  all  parochial,  where  simply  the  instruction 
of  the  church  was  given.  After  twelve  years  of  our  con- 
ception of  Americanism  and  higher  civilization,  we  have 
over  2,000  public  schools  in  Porto  Rico,  and  over  every 
one  of  them  floats  the  stars  and  stripes.  Of  the  1,900 
teachers  over  1,500  are  Porto  Rican  themselves.  I  doubt 
if,  in  all  the  history  of  American  education,  this  situation 
has  ever  yet  been  paralleled,  for  those  people,  only  10% 
of  whom  could  read  or  write,  have  so  advanced  that  our 
census  figures  now  reveal  that  25%  have  mastered  the 
fundamental  principles  and  are  today  reading  and  writ- 
ing their  names. 

There  is  much  misapprehension  of  where  we  are.  It 
has  been  seriously  asked,  by  those  misinformed,  "In 
which  one  of  the  Philippine  Islands  do  we  find  Porto 
Rico?" 

In  a  western  state,  a  lady  sent  up  her  card,  for  "in- 
formation about  Porto  Rico,"  saying  she  was  engaged 
for  an  address  before  the  Woman's  Club.  It  developed 
that  she  "understood  it  was  an  insignificant  island  in  the 
Indian  Ocean  just  east  of  Africa." 


1 28  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Go  with  me  as  we  open  the  gateway  to  this  land  of 
great  beauty,  five  days  from  New  York  city,  east  and 
south,  over  200  miles  south  of  Cuba,  i,cxx)  miles  east  of 
Havana.  Yonder  lie  the  islands  of  this  chain,  a  number 
of  them  small  indeed.  The  largest  is  only  100x50  miles, 
but  our  census  reveal  a  populaion  of  a  million  and  a 
quarter  upon  this  island.  Among  these  islands  is  one 
which  is  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  Treasure  Island.  We 
have  a  situation  of  wonderful  charm.  It  is  a  land  of 
great  scenic  beauty.  Mine  eyes  have  seen  nothing  com- 
parable, unless  a  part  of  the  Swiss  Alps  might  be  so  con- 
sidered. It  is  a  land  of  great  value  in  its  intrinsic  worth. 
Our  market  products  are  receiving  the  attention  of  the 
world.  The  highest  exports  known  under  the  Spanish 
regime  were  twenty-two  million.  Last  year  the  amount 
was  sixty-six  million.  You  speak  of  your  great  corn 
crops.  I  will  speak  of  something  sweeter.  Last  year 
our  sugar  harvest  amounted  to  360,000  tons.  We  are 
sweet  enough  to  keep  your  politics  in  good  order  up  here, 
if  you  will  just  let  us.  It  is  a  land  of  mineral  wealth, 
but  these  elements  do  not  represent  after  all  the  value  of 
those  islands  to  the  United  States  government.  I  bring 
a  report,  not  read  from  a  book,  but  what  my  own  eye*? 
have  seen  there.  In  years  of  service  yonder,  I  have 
threaded  my  ways  through  the  humblest  shacks.  I  slept 
recently  in  a  house  12x14,  just  eleven  children,  father, 
mother  and  myself,  and  the  rain  began  to  pour  so  fiercely 
the  chickens,  two  goats  and  three  hogs  were  brought  in, 


Our  Insular  Possessions  129 

and  there  was  room  for  more.  I  know  something*  of  the 
situation  from  the  so-called  bottom.  Likewise  today  I 
am  proud  to  tell  you  that  upon  our  church  rolls  are  the 
names  of  judges,  doctors  and  attorneys.  The  professions 
are  now  a  part  of  our  Methodist  membership  and  from 
these  two  extremes  I  bring  you  tonight  the  observation 
of  these  six  years,  and  I  declare  it  my  judgment  to  be 
as  true  that  William  McKinley  must  have  been  led  by 
God,  in  opening  the  door  of  promise  and  hope  and  truth 
to  these  people  as  Moses  was  in  the  days  of  old.  We  are 
told  by  one  near  him  in  thought  and  affection,  that  he 
said,  "God  helping  me,  I  will  implant  the  American  con- 
science in  the  isles  of  the  sea,"  as  he  rose  from  his  knees. 
Surely  God's  voice  was  speaking  through  his  lips. 

Now  these  people  are  misrepresented  sometimes, 
even  in  Congress.  There  you  hear  occasionally  speeches 
of  ingratitude,  but  I  think  I  know  when  I  say  to  y  lu  that 
in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Porto  Rican  people,  there  is  a 
keen,  profound  sense  of  loyalty,  devotion  and  gratitude  to 
the  American  nation.  Beautiful  and  significant  is  the  fact 
that  on  the  humblest  wall  you  frequently  find,  in  moun- 
tain regions,  alongside  the  face  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  an 
humble  wood  cut  of  the  face  of  William  McKinley. 
Some  time  ago,  in  the  interior,  I  was  riding  on  horseback 
and  saw  a  line  of  sixty-seven  children,  and  an  humble 
shack  answering  the  purpose  of  a  public  school.  Exactly 
at  9  o'clock  the  stars  and  stripes  reached  the  pinnacle  of 
the  flag  pole,  and  they  raised  their  voices  in  what  I  think 


1 30  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

was  one  of  the  most  impressive  little  peons  of  praise  I 
ever  heard,  ''My  County,  Tis  of  Thee,  Sweet  Land  of 
Liberty,  of  Thee  I  Sing/'  Out  of  this  citizenship  will 
be  carved  a  statehood  of  which  you  will  be  proud.  I  will 
be  glad  to  have  the  ushers  give  you  these  cards  at  the 
close,  not  for  subscriptions,  but  for  the  information  given. 
You  can  observe  the  figures,  on  self-support,  and  the 
average  wage  was  less  than  fifty  cents  a  day.  As  Metho- 
dists they  are  entitled  to  your  consideration.  But  I  want 
to  speak  in  a  more  general  way.  A  transformation  is 
evolving,  to  a  type  that  is  winning  the  admiration  of  the 
entire  world.  It  seems  to  me,  the  Grace  of  God  that  can 
extend  down  through  centuries  of  darkness,  ignorance, 
of  idolatry — for  it  is  nothing  else,  it  seems  to  me — repre- 
sents a  higher  efficacy  of  the  power  of  His  Grace  than 
its  influence  over  the  so-called  life  of  higher  develop- 
ment. 

I  have  tonight  a  good  illustration,  in  concrete  form, 
of  our  girlhood,  there.  This  is  drawn  work  by  a  girl  of 
15.  She  is  the  sole  support  of  seven  orphans.  I  buy 
everything  this  girl  makes.  Her  little  mother-sister 
heart,  with  infinite  devotion,  has  toiled  to  keep  the  little 
brood  from  starvation.  There  is  not  a  bed  in  the  home. 
They  did  not  know  the  use  of  knife  and  fork.  They  could 
not  read  until  recently.  Now  the  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sion has  enrolled  three  of  the  girls  in  our  school.  This 
work  challenges  admiration,  and  represents  mentality 
that  commands  recognition.     A  few  years  ago  I  was  in 


Our  Insular  Possessions  1 3 1 

the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan,  visiting  a  great  mine 
at  Calumet.    One  of  the  directors  took  me  in  the  bowels 
of  the  earth.    I  stumbled  over  a  piece  of  ore.    I  looked 
at  it  and  cast  it  aside  as  worthless.   I  perceived  my  error 
shortly  afterward.     When  sailing  for  San  Juan  I  was 
handed  a  small  express  package,  finding  to  my  delight 
and  admiration  this  copper  agate  made  from  the  same 
identical  piece  of  ore  I  had  recklessly  cast  aside.    I  have 
the  thought  that  it  will  be  God's  way  to  gather  some  of 
Heaven's  richest  gems,  that  may  bedeck  the  diadem  of 
the  King  of  Glory,  some  day,  from  islands  like  these  I 
represent.     Hidden,  it  is  your  privilege  and  my  great 
privilege  and  honor  to  discover  and  polish  them.     You 
are  doing  that  here  in  the  home  land;  they  are  doing  it 
there.     I  sent  up  my  card  a  few  weeks  ago  in  a  state 
house  in  the  middle  west,  to  a  distinguished  state  official, 
whose  decisions  are  watched    very    closely    throughout 
the  entire  country.     I  see  again  in  memory  a  humble, 
uncouth,  rough-looking  specimen  of  farm  boyhood,  as 
I  remember  when  he  came  to  school  and  entered  the 
freshman    class,     a    great,     tall,     overgrown    boy — to- 
gether combining  more  awkwardness  than  I  had  ever 
seen  in  boyhood's   form.     After  the  transition  of  the 
years  I  saw  him  commencement  day.     He  had  literally 
milked  his  way  through  college.     Commencement  day 
dawned.     I    can    see,    almost    as    yesterday,    a    white- 
haired  mother  seated    in   the   grove   at   Cornell,   in  an 
old  faded  black  alpaca  dress,  many  times  turned,  and 


I. -^2  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

an  old  bonnet,  but  with  a  face  radiant  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  compensation,  as  her  fine-appearing  son  won  the 
honors  of  the  day  and  led  the  class.  I  had  not  seen  him 
since  commencement  day.  The  messenger  who  took  in 
my  card  came  back  to  say,  "He  will  receive  you  im- 
mediately." Soon  I  was  in  the  presence  of  this  dignified 
statesman,  who  took  my  hand  with  warm  cordiality.  I 
said,  "I  have  come  to  lay  my  tribute  at  your  feet,  for 
you  have  distanced  us  all ;  it  must  be  comforting  to  know 
that  the  mother  knows  it  too."  "Do  you  think  she 
knows?"  he  asked,  almost  breaking  down.  "She  died 
six  months  after  commencement  day,  and  she  never  knew 
I  ever  made  good  other  than  that  day.  Do  you  think 
she  knows?"  I  said,  "It  is  written  in  the  book  that  no 
good  thing  will  be  withheld  from  them  that  love  Him 
and  walk  uprightly  before  Him.  The  pledge  of  heaven  is 
given ;  mother  knows." 

We  are  engaged  in  a  like  work  with  them,  evolving 
and  transforming  into  lives  you  will  be  glad  to  admit  to 
your  circle.  If  I  have  time,  I  want  to  speak  of  one  or 
two  illustrations  that  prove  these  assertions.  There  are 
some  I  always  like  to  repeat.  I  will  tell  the  story  of  Lily 
your  great  society,  Mrs.  Williams,  has  put  its  mark  upon 
her — a  little  chocolate  drop,  that  come  to  us  strangely. 
Some  of  these  people  are  dark  colored,  but  three-fifths 
are  as  fair  as  you.  The  other  day  a  gentlemen  told  me 
that  I  spoke  fairly  good  English  for  a  Porto  Rican. 
One  day  on  an  island  1  was  baptizing  children.  I  had 
completed  the  number  when  I  heard,  softly,  "Senor,  yo 


Our  Insular  Possessions  i  li:^ 

tambien". — me  too.  I  inquired  the  name  "Leely."  I  ad- 
mire the  Calla  family,  but  I  never  had  seen  one  of  that 
shade.  No  one  seemed  to  know  whence  she  came,  nor 
do  I  know  to  this  day.  She  drifted  in  from  some  place, 
and  was  seeking  this  holy  sacrament.  Who  was  I,  to 
deny  it?  Turning  to  the  minister  I  asked  if  he  would 
join  me  in  it.  I  took  her  up,  and  we  went  through  the 
vows  in  Spanish.  Then  when  the  benediction  was  pro- 
nounced I  sat  down  to  view  a  new  possession,  for  Lily 
was  on  my  lap,  calling  me  ''Daddy."  Blessed  be  God, 
this  great  Society  this  good  woman  represents,  made  a 
life  development  possible.  George  O.  Robinson,  a  name 
that  must  ever  be  spoken  in  great  appreciation  by  Metho- 
dists, made  possible  the  beautiful  George  O.  Robinson 
orphanage.  We  went  to  San  Juan  (the  capitol),  where 
she  saw  for  the  first  time  electricity,  and  a  street  car, 
from  which  she  shrank  in  fear,  calling  it  Diablo.  Soon 
we  reached  the  home,  and  Lily  was  taken  to  what  I 
knew  would  prove  the  first  real  bath  she  ever  knew.  In 
her  beautiful  Spanish  she  asked,  'Ts  this  Heaven?"  Do 
you  not  see  how  good  it  is  to  put  some  conception  of  a 
better  life,  even  in  the  heart  of  an  ignorant,  almost 
barbarian  child? 

Shall  I  speak  of  a  Hindoo  woman,  brought  a  slave, 
to  Porto  Rico,  80  years  of  age  (the  ship  load  brought 
with  her  having  all  passed  away),  who  was  led  to  Christ 
eight  years  ago  by  Reverend  Samuel  Culpepper,  of  the 
North  Indiana  conference — one  of  the  most  efficient  men 


1 34  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

I  have  ever  known  for  the  saving  of  men  that  has  been 
sent  to  be  my  co-laborer.  This  woman  has  given  ser- 
vice as  ChristHke  as  I  have  ever  known.  Five  years  ago 
I  was  coming  in  on  the  sands  of  the  beach,  a  Httle  bit 
discouraged.  There  are  sometimes  some  hard  problems 
to  meet.  Homesickness  was  over  me.  I  chanced  to  hear 
a  voice  I  recognized  instantly  as  Mary's.  Drawing  near 
an  old,  thatched  Porto  Rican  hut,  and  peering  within, 
I  saw  on  the  floor  a  dying  Porto  Rican  woman,  and  by 
her  side  this  old  Hindoo  woman,  reading  that  great  14th 
chapter  of  John's  Gospel.  You  have  known  it  if  you 
ever  suffered  deeply.  Now%  I  understand  the  Christly 
interpretation  had  never  been  my  realization  before.  In 
tender- voiced  Spanish  she  said,  '']w2.m\.2!'  (the  name  of 
the  woman),  ''Let  not  thy  heart  be  troubled  tonight; 
neither  be  afraid.  The  Master  has  said,  In  my  Father's 
house  there  are  many  mansions.'  "  I  could  not  but  con- 
trast the  mansions  of  glory,  that  would  soon  be  hers, 
with  the  humble  abode.  The  Hindoo  woman  could  not 
write  or  read,  but  she  had  memorized  the  entire  14th 
Chapter  of  John's  Gospel  and  several  of  the  Psalms.  I 
saw  by  the  pallor  of  the  dying  woman's  face  that  disso- 
lution was  at  hand.  The  old  Hindoo  woman  bent  over 
tenderly,  and  took  both  hands,  as  she  said,  "Juanita,  do 
you  hear?— Adios."  I  dare  to  believe  that  the  gates  of 
pearl  opened  very  wide  that  night  to  admit  this  new 
bom  soul. 

This  is  the  work  of  our  island  possessions.    Does  it 


0217' Insular  Possessions  135 

pay?  I  think  you  might  Hke  to  see  her  face,  and  in 
closing  I  show  it.  My  sister  is  an  artist.  I  asked  her 
to  paint  it.  You  will  see  a  face  very  Christly  and  saintly. 
When  I  was  coming  home  several  years  ago  I  asked  old 
Mary  if  she  would  not  like  to  send  a  message.  She  said, 
"Dear  Lord,  whoever  you  forget,  do  not  forget  the 
Americans."  Loving  you  so  much,  I  knew  she  would 
like  to  speak  to  you.  I  gave  her  the  privilege  at  the  end 
of  the  morning  services.  She  was  bewildered  and  asked 
them  about  it.  She  came,  to  our  astonishment,  clad  in 
a  lady's  blue  serge  bathing  suit.  Knowing  she  was  go- 
ing to  speak  to  American  people,  she  thought  she  ought 
to  be  dressed  a  la  Americana.  To  my  amazement,  she 
began  to  speak  in  what  seemed  pretty  good  English. 
After  a  few  words,  she  paused  and  changed  her  speech 
into  Spanish,  her  little  body  all  aquiver  with  emotion, 
looking  into  my  face  with  tearful  eyes:  "Brother,  tell 
them  America  sent  me  my  Christ." 

I  have  often  wondered  just  who  it  may  have  been. 
It  may  have  been  a  humble  washer  woman  in  Nebraska, 
who  sends  me  a  dollar  every  year  for  Porto  Rico,  or 
that  humble  soul  in  California,  who  sends  a  golden  five 
dollar  coin  at  Eastertide,  or  that  Boston  bootblack,  with 
a  face  so  dirty  and  a  look  so  hungry  one  day  I  gave  him 
a  coin  and  told  him  to  get  something  to  eat  and  a  bath. 
He  asked  my  name,  and  I  gave  him  my  card.  Soon 
after  there  came  to  Porto  Rico  this  letter :  "Say,  Mister, 
here  is  five  cents  for  Porto  Rico.  Spend  it  all,  and  say 
nothing  about  it." 


136  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

••  God  knows  the  benefactor,  and  this  I  think  I  know, 
that  in  the  last  great  day,  me  thinks  I  can  even  now  hear 
the  words  of  Christ  as  he  taketh  the  hand  of  the  favored 
benefactor,  and  leading-  them  to  the  feet  of  old  Hindoo 
Mary,  and  say  as  only  the  Christ  can  speak,  'Inasmuch 
as  Ye  did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  Ye  did  it  unto 
me."  Truly  I  had  rather  be  that  benefactor  then  than 
to  be  King  George,  crowned  King  of  England  and  Em- 
peror of  all  India,  for  there  are  crowns  that  fadeth  not 
away;  there  is  gold  that  tarnisheth  not,  and  there  is  a 
reward  of  which  the  world  knoweth  not. 

(Voice :  I  insist  that  the  Doctor  tell  about  his  most 
unique  wedding  party.) 

Well,  it  was  at  a  quarterly  meeting.  First  was  the 
baptismal  services,  then  the  reception  of  a  large  class  on 
probation,  then  the  sermon,  and  following  that  the  wed- 
ding. We  never  hold  a  quarterly  meeting  there  without 
weddings.  I  understand  these  presiding  elders  or  dis- 
trict superintendents  do — occasionally^ — up  here.  That 
night  there  were  five  barefooted  brides  and  grooms.  An 
old,  gray-haired  man,  70  years  of  age,  his  son  and  his 
son's  son,  with  two  other  barefoot  brides  and  grooms. 
I  began  with  the  old  gentleman  first.  His  grandson  had 
walked  12  miles  over  the  mountain  to  be  present  when 
I  married  his  ancestor.  It  is  a  sad  fact  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  people  of  Porto  Rico  are  living  without 
the  blessing  of  the  Church.  They  are  not  wholly  at 
fault.     Rome  demanded  a  minimum  fee  of  $5  for  every 


Our  Insular  Possessions  137 

wedding  service,  and  the  average  wage  was  37  cents  a 
day.  They  could  not  pay  it.  In  the  communion  service 
I  wish  you  could  have  heard  the  bridegroom's  prayer. 
We  never  permit  that  sacrament  except  when  they  are 
living  in  lawful  wedded  relationship.  When  the  meeting 
was  over  they  all  stayed.  We  could  not  get  them  out. 
We  never  have  a  building  big  enough  to  hold  the  people. 
There  was  a  little  sea  of  faces  beyond.  You  could  not 
get  one  to  move  until  I  had  gone.  Going  out  I  felt 
somehow  an  anxiety  to  see  the  finale  of  this  situation. 
I  dropped  behind  a  banana  tree,  saw  the  old  bridegroom 
come  out  with  his  wife,  and  seated  her  on  the  one  horse. 
Everybody  else  walked.  When  she  was  nicely  adjusted 
I  saw  him  look  around  bashfully  and,  thinking  himself 
unobserved,  I  saw  him  take  her  hand  gently  in  his  and 
imprint  the  lover's  kiss  thereon.  I  know  that  it  is  the 
same  love  that  ravished  your  heart  and  mine  for  those 
dear  unto  us,  for  God  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men. 

Three  years  ago,  while  traveling  through  the  in- 
terior of  the  main  island,  on  the  second  day  of  the  jour- 
ney, about  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  had  reached  the 
summit  of  the  high  mountain  and  had  gone  beyond 
where  there  were  cross  trails  on  the  mountain  side.  At 
that  place  was  a  little  Tienda  shop  (a.  place  where  re- 
freshments could  be  obtained).  I  ate  my  dinner,  which 
consisted  of  black  coffee,  beans  and  rice,  beautifully 
blended  with  garlic  and  grease,  and  at  the  conclusion  of 


1 38  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

my  repast  I  obtained  consent  of  the  keeper  of  this  place 
(a  young  man  about  21  or  22  years  of  age)  for  the  mes- 
sage. Taking  out  my  Spanish  Testament  I  read  the 
story  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  I  had  finished,  to  my  sur- 
prise, he  asked  for  its  repetition.  **0,  you  have  heard 
this  before,  my  brother."  ''Never,  never."  After  I  had 
finished  the  recital  it  seemed  to  dawn  upon  his  mind,  as 
he  said  in  his  Spanish  tongue,  "O,  yes,  I  have  a  Christ 
here  in  my  house  today."  Bringing  out  a  figure  of  the 
Crucified  Christ,  he  placed  it  on  the  counter,  adding, 
'This  is  a  Christ."  Then  bringing  an  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  placing  it  alongside,  he  called  this  the 
mother  of  God.  The  third  time  he  brought  out  his  Saint, 
"San  Jose,"  which  he  declared  was  the  most  important 
of  the  three,  inasmuch  as  this  Saint  was  compelled  to 
hear  his  prayers  for  redemption.  Stirred  to  my  heart's 
depth,  I  replied,  "O,  my  brother,  this  is  not  the  Christ 
of  whom  I  read;  this  represents  a  dead  Christ,  but  I 
have  read  to  you  the  story  of  the  living  Christ,  who 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  Then  I  sang  my  con- 
version hymn,  and  it  is  as  sweet  in  Spanish  as  in  Eng- 
lish. "There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood."  To  my 
surprise,  when  I  had  completed  the  sixth  stanza  of  the 
hymn  I  found  that  I  had  an  audience  of  more  than  two 
hundred  men,  who  were  laboring  on  a  nearby  coffee 
plantation,  and  had  been  attracted  by  the  novelty  of  the 
singing  to  the  place.  I  read  them  the  story  of  the 
Christ,  mounted  my  horse  and  rode  down  the  mountain 


Our  Insular  Possessions  i^q 

side.  About  three  weeks  after  that  there  came  to  my 
office  a  long-  petition,  purporting  to  be  from  these  men, 
not  one  of  whom  could  read  or  write,  but  they  had  gone 
to  a  neighboring  township  and  found  a  man  who  could, 
and  by  their  request  he  had  affixed  their  signatures  to 
this  instrument,  in  which  they  represented  that  there 
were  forty  thousand  in  their  township  who  could  neither 
read  or  write,  and  no  schools  had  ever  been  placed  for 
the  instruction  of  their  children. 

Furthermore,  they  stated  that,  except  themselves, 
none  others  had  ever  heard  the  story  of  the  living 
Christ,  and  they  only  on  the  occasion  of  my  passing 
through  their  mountain  community — would  I  send  them 
a  pastor-teacher,  some  one  to  open  the  door  of  oppor- 
tunity to  their  children  and  tell  them  of  the  living  Christ. 
I  had  not  a  dollar  at  my  command  for  this  work,  but  on 
arising  from  prayer  I  seemed  to  feel  the  presence  of 
Robert  Mclntyre,  now  one  of  the  great  Bishops  of  our 
Church,  but  then  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Los  An- 
geles, Cal.,  and  a  member  of  my  own  conference  (South- 
ern California).  I  wrote  a  letter  to  Doctor  Mclntyre, 
stating  the  situation;  he  turned  it  over  to  his  Epworth 
League,  and  the  next  steamer  brought  back  the  answer 
' — a  draft  for  $i8o — $15  per  month.  I  had  a  young  man 
waiting.  I  sent  him  forward.  Behold  the  fruitage  of 
that  seed  sowing  on  the  mountain  side.  I  have  recently 
held  the  quarterly  meeting  of  that  circuit,  and  now  there 
are  twenty  appointments  thereon,  and  the  young  man 


140  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

who  gave  me  his  saint  is  now  a  class  leader  and  walks 
many  miles  over  the  mountain  every  Sabbath  day  to  hold 
religious  services.  I  began  services  on  this  occasion  at 
7  o'clock;  I  got  through  at  ii.  They  never  got  enough 
there,  and  all  remained  to  the  Quarterly  Conference; 
you  could  not  get  them  away;  as  far  as  I  could  see  in 
the  moonlight  there  was  a  rim  of  faces.  When  ii 
o'clock  came,  and  I  pronounced  the  benediction,  I  was 
walking  up  the  mountain  side  to  the  place  where  we 
could  seek  rest  for  the  night,  when  I  was  conscious  of 
being  followed.  On  looking  around  I  perceived  seven 
barefooted  laboring  men,  who  apologized  for  interrupt- 
ing, but  stated  that  they  had  come  late  to  service;  that 
they  had  toiled  on  a  coffee  plantation  all  day  and  walked 
six  or  seven  miles  over  the  mountain  and  had  only  had 
one  and  one-half  hours  of  the  service.  Would  I  tell 
them  something  more  about  this  great  Christ,  who  loved 
men  well  enough  to  die  for  men.  I  dropped  under  a 
banana  tree,  told  the  old,  old,  sweet  story  (the  sweetest 
that  lips  can  ever  tell),  the  mission  of  my  Christ  to  men, 
and  I  had  my  reward,  for  when  the  noon  of  night 
dawned  I  looked  into  seven  faces  divinely  fair,  who  knew 
the  Prince  of  Peace.  This  is  in  part  the  story  of  life 
evolution  now  operating  in  these  Southern  seas.  A  band 
of  faithful  men  and  women,  none  more  heroic  to  be 
found  under  the  sky,  are  there,  evolving  character  for 
eternity.  Lowell  never  spoke  truer  in  his  conception  of 
right  than  when  he  declared  in  his  immortal  poem  for 
freedom : 


Our  Insular  Possessions  141 

"For  mankind  is  one  in   spirit,   and   an  instinct  bears 

along, 
Round  the  earth's  electric  circle  in  the  swift  flush  of 

right  or  wrong. 

Whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  yet  humanity's  vast 

frame, 
Through  its  ocean-sundred  fibers  feels  the  gush  of  joy 

or  shame. 
In  the  gain  or  loss  of  one  race,  all  the  rest  find  equal 

claim." 

Dr.  Johnson  was  here  introduced  by  the  chairman. 


OUR  MONGOLIAN  PEOPLES. 

BY      HERBERT      B.       JOHNSON^     D.     D.^     SUPERINTENDENT 
PACIFIC   JAPANESE   MISSIONS. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Friends  :    Never  before  have 
our  American  people  been  so  interested  in  the  immigra- 
tion question  as  at  present.     It  is  referred  to  by  Pro- 
fessor Jenks  of  Cornell  University,   a  member  of  the 
United    States    Immigration    Commission,   in  a  recent 
magazine  article,  as  *'The  Urgent   Immigration  Prob- 
lem ;"  and  Doctor  Doughty,  in  his  convincing  and  inspir- 
ing address,  named  it  as  a  problem  which  we  have  cre- 
ated by  our  national  prosperity.     There  is  no  denying 
that  it  is  one  of  our  most  pressing  problems  today.     In 
1905,  as  a  member  of  the  National  Immigration  Con- 
gress, with  five  hundred  others,  I  spent  three  days  in 
New  York  City  in  considering  it.     What  a  revelation 
was  our  visit  of  inspection  to  the  Immigrant  Station  at 
Ellis  Island! 

Professor  Jenks,  in  the  article  referred  to,  shows 
that  from  1819  to  1883  over  95  per  cent  of  our  immi- 
grants came  from  Northern  Europe;  that  in  the  latter 
year,  when  nearly  650,000  arrived,  the  percentage  was 
reduced  to  87,  and  that  in  the  next  twenty-five  years 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  1 43 

not  only  had  the  arrivals  per  year  doubled,  reaching  a 
million  and  a  quarter,  but  that  81  per  cent  of  these  came 
from  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe,  mostly  from  Italy, 
Russia  and  Austria  Hungary. 

Dr.  Wright,  in  his  admirable  address,  will  show  us 
that  there  is  no  menace  in  the  immigration  of  the 
Italians,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  are  very 
hopeful  features  in  connection  with  their  coming. 

Much  has  been  said  in  recent  years  in  certain  quar- 
ters concerning  our  special  immigration  problem  on  the 
Pacific  Coast.  There  is  no  such  problem  today,  for  the 
reason  that  years  ago  the  exclusion  of  Chinese  laborers, 
the  only  class  ever  objected  to,  was  secured  by  law  in 
Congress;  and  more  recently  the  same  class  of  Japanese 
and  Koreans  has  been  restricted  by  the  so-called  "Gen- 
tleman's Agreement"  between  Washington  and  Tokyo. 
As  proof  of  this,  if  proof  is  necessary,  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Chronicle,  in  a  recent  editorial,  while  the  California 
Legislature  was  in  session,  said :  "Japanese  laborers 
have  ceased  to  come,  as  a  result  of  the  friendly  official 
action  of  the  Japanese  government,  in  respect  to  whose 
faith  there  is  no  question  whatever."  This  paper,  which 
started  the  agitation  against  the  Japanese,  further  said 
in  the  same  editorial:  "In  the  face  of  this  situation, 
any  anti-Oriental  legislation,  or  attempted  legislation, 
will  be  justly  regarded  as  demagogic  attempts  to  gain 
personal  notoriety  by  stirring  up  race  hatred." 

But  while  we  have  no  Asiatic  immigration  problem 


144  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

on  our  hands,  we  have  a  task  that  demands  our  very  best 
in  thought  and  effort  and  prayer  in  Christianizing  the 
tens  of  thousands  who  are  here  and  the  few  thousands 
of  the  better  classes  who  arrive  annually.  There  are 
from  60,000  to  80,000  Chinese  in  the  country,  at  least 
half  of  whom  are  west  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains ; 
and  about  90,000  Japanese,  more  than  half  of  whom  are 
in  the  three  great  states  of  California,  Oregon  and 
Washington. 

About  5,000  Chinese  have  come  in  annually  for  the 
past  three  years,  over  half  of  whom  are  United  States 
citizens  or  returning  merchants.  The  most  encouraging 
thing  is  that  many  students  are  now  coming  to  enter  our 
schools,  coming  from  all  parts  of  China  in  contrast  with 
former  immigrants,  who  have  practically  all  come  from 
one  province  in  Southern  China.  As  is  the  case  of  the 
Japanese  students  who  have  been  in  this  country,  this 
will  mean  much,  both  in  the  matter  of  peaceful  relations 
between  the  two  countries  and  in  their  taking  back  to 
their  people  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country,  the 
things  which  will  make  China  truly  great,  particularly 
the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and  of  our  Christ. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  win  the  Chinaman  in  this 
country  to  the  Saviour.  While  there  are  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  thousand  in  San  Francisco,  and  several  thou- 
sands in  some  other  cities,  for  the  most  part  they  are 
widely  scattered,  a  few  hundred  at  most  being  found  in 
more  than  a  few  centers.    There  are  few  women  among 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  145 

them,  and  family  life  is  lacking.  Trained  workers  are 
few,  and  too  many  of  our  American  people  are  indif- 
ferent. While  the  Chinese  are  wonderful  traders  and 
many  of  them  are  prosperous  merchants,  far  too  many 
of  them  are  gamblers  and  keepers  of  gambling  dens. 
In  this  they  differ  greatly  from  the  Japanese.  In  the 
larger  communities  are  to  be  found  Chinese  temples  or 
joss  houses,  and  superstitious  observances  are  very  preva- 
lent among  the  people. 

Much,  very  much,  has  already  been  accomplished. 
Not  including  work  by  individual  churches  throughout 
the  country,  which  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
tabulate,  about  6,500  have  been  baptized  from  the  be- 
gining,  our  Church  standing  third  on  the  list,  with  about 
1,200.  The  present  membership  is  not  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  this.  All  the  churches  lost  heavily  in  the  great 
fire  in  San  Francisco,  Dr.  James,  the  superintendent  of 
our  Chinese  Missions,  is  now  rebuilding.  Dr.  Otis  Gib- 
son, who  spent  his  apprenticeship  in  China,  was  the  first 
superintendent.  He  was  a  man  of  God,  of  heroic  type. 
During  the  awful  agitation  and  persecution  before  the 
Anti-Chinese  Exclusion  law  was  passed  he  was  wounded 
and  burned  in  efiigy.  But  he  stood  his  ground  and  was 
greatly  beloved  by  the  Chinese.  When  the  roll  of  great 
missionaries  and  missionary  heroes  is  called,  his  name 
will  stand  high  among  the  greatest. 

Dr.  James,  the  present  superintendent,  reported  the 
last  year  was  the  most  hopeful  in  many  years.     The 


146  The  Cojiservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

pupils  in  the  English  schools  increased  from  178  to  635, 
and  the  Sunday  School  scholars  and  the  contributions 
for  self  support  nearly  doubled.  O'ther  Chinese  Chris- 
tians gave  last  year  for  pastoral  support,  current  ex- 
penses and  general  benevolences  nearly  ten  dollars  per 
capita,  and  in  addition  contributed  several  thousand  dol- 
lars to  support  their  native  missionary  society  in  their 
own  province  in  China,  where  our  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  has  no  work.  The  pastor  there  is  a  product 
of  the  work  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  as  are  the  pastors  as- 
sociated with  Dr.  James  in  California. 

I  have  already  called  attention  to  the  Japanese 
population  being  about  90,000,  over  half  of  whom  are 
west  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains,  and  to  the  re- 
striction of  Japanese  laborers  on  the  part  of  the  Japa- 
nese government.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  some  of 
our  European  governments  to  follow  this  example?  For 
each  of  the  last  two  years  about  2,500  Japanese  have 
come  to  Continental  America,  and  about  twice  that  num- 
ber have  returned.  So  far  as  Hawaii  is  concerned,  about 
1,500  have  come  each  year  and  nearly  2,400  have  re- 
turned annually.  For  the  past  three  years  about  9,000 
more  of  the  laboring  class  have  returned  to  Japan  than 
have  departed.  The  quality  of  the  immigrants  has  thus 
greatly  improved.  Nearly  1,400  women  and  children 
have  come  to  Continental  America  during  the  past  two 
years.  The  Japanese  are  remarkably  industrious,  frugal 
and  generous.     I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  their 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  147 

giving  later.  Their  intelligence  is  generally  recognized. 
Almost  without  exception  they  are  polite  and  gentle  and 
devoted  to  what  they  have  in  hand.  A  strong  sense  of 
duty  is  a  national  characteristic. 

Our  work  among  the  Japanese  began  in  the  Chinese 
Mission  in  San  Francisco,  under  Dr.  Otis  Gibson,  when 
there  were  not  more  than  fifty  Japanese  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. I  wish  to  speak  particularly  of  two  young  Japa- 
nese who,  desiring  to  study  English,  went  there  as 
the  most  suitable  place  at  the  time,  and  found  more 
than  they  went  to  seek,  namely,  they  found  the  Savior. 
K.  Miyama  was  the  first,  about  1877,  and  he  at  once 
became  a  flaming  evangelist  among  his  people.  There 
were  more  Japanese  then  in  Hawaii  than  here,  those 
islands  not  having  been  taken  over  by  our  government, 
and  the  need  among  them  was  very  great,  especially  the 
need  of  Gospel  temperance  work.  He  went  there  when 
there  was  not  more  than  one  other  Christian  in  the 
islands,  and  at  once  called  upon  the  Consul  General, 
Hon.  Taro  Ando,  to  assist  him.  His  fondness  for  liquor 
caused  him  to  decline,  but  repeatedly  urged  by  Mr.  Mi- 
yama he  came  to  the  meetings  and  was  gloriously  con- 
verted, together  with  his  wife  and  his  secretaries  and 
scores  of  other  Japanese.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
our  Hawaiian  mission,  which  now  includes  successful 
work  among  three  nationalities — Japanese,  Americans 
and  Koreans.  Bishop  Hughes,  you  will  remember,  re- 
cently dedicated  a  fine  new  church  for  our  American 


148  The  Conservation  oj  Our  Moral  Resources 

church  there.  Mr.  Ando,  the  Consul,  soon  returned  to 
Japan  and  became  the  leading-  layman  of  our  leading 
church  in  Tokyo  and  the  president  of  the  National  Tem- 
perance Society  of  Japan.  Mr.  Miyama,  who  led  him  to 
Christ,  returned  and  became  his  pastor,  and  later  Na- 
tional Temperance  Evangelist.  They  worked  and 
planned  and  prayed  together,  and  great  was  the  prog- 
ress made.  And  this  was  the  direct  result  of  the  con- 
version of  a  young  Japanese  in  the  Chinese  Mission  in 
San  Francisco;  in  short,  this  is  the  outcome  of  Home 
Missions. 

I  said  that  there  were  two  so  converted,  of  whom 
I  wished  to  speak.  The  other  is  the  Rev.  S.  Ogata, 
D.  D.,  the  successor  of  Bishop  Honda  as  president  of 
Aoyama  College  in  Tokyo,  and  since  1886  a  faithful  and 
efficient  missionary  to  his  people  in  Japan,  the  first  and 
only  native  Japanese  missionary  appointed  by  our  Board 
in  New  York.  During  the  critical  years  when  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  could  not  hold  property  in  Japan,  and 
when  certain  other  boards  were  having  serious  trouble, 
Brother  Ogata  held  in  trust  our  splendid  and  valuable 
school  and  residence  property  at  Aoyama,  and  there 
never  was  a  breath  of  suspicion  as  to  his  honesty  or 
integrity.  He  is  now  in  this  country  on  the  invitation 
of  Depauw  University,  from  which  he  graduated  after 
his  conversion,  and  is  now  spending  some  time  in  the 
West.  I  wish  you  to  meet  him  and  greet  him  in  the 
name  of  Christ  and  our  Methodism.  He  is  the  direct 
product  of  Home  Mission  work  in  San  Francisco. 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  149' 

But  after  the  coming  of  my  predecessor,  Dr.  (now 
Bishop)  Harris,  in  1886,  many  other  young  men  were 
called  to  the  ministry  in  San  Francisco  and  in  our  other 
missions.  I  wish  to  refer  briefly  to  two  or  three.  T. 
Ukai,  after  his  conversion,  went  east  to  college — not  to 
Depauw,  but  to  Simpson.  On  his  return,  like  Miyama 
and  Ogata,  he  became  Mr.  Ando's  pastor  in  Tokyo. 
Later,  when  a  suitable  man  was  needed  to  organize  the 
Sunday  School  work  of  Japan,  he  became  secretary  of 
the  new  Sunday  School  U(nion.  It  was  not  a  nominal 
appoinment.  He  threw  his  great  soul  into  the  work. 
As  an  illustration  of  what  he  accomplished,  a  couple  of 
years  ago  he  secured  the  use  of  a  great  new  building  in 
Tokyo  and  arranged  for  a  gathering  of  12,000  Sunday 
School  children.  The  Buddhists  wished  to  dedicate  it 
by  using  it  first,  but  in  co-operation  with  others  and 
with  his  American  spirit — ^yea  the  spirit  of  Christ — he 
secured  it,  packed  it  with  Sunday  School  children,  and 
held  one  of  the  greatest  Christian  meetings  that  Japan 
has  known.  Americans  who  were  present  said  they 
never  before  heard  such  singing.  This  man,  like  the 
others  mentioned,  is  a  product  of  our  Oriental  Mission- 
ary work  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  I  mention  by  name  one 
other — H.  Kihara,  at  present  District  Superintendent  of 
the  Japanese  work  in  Korea.  After  his  conversion  in 
San  Francisco  he  organized  one  of  our  leading  missions 
in  California,  then  went  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  where 
he  was  remarkably  successful,  then  to  Drew  Theological 


1 50  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Seminary  for  further  preparation,  then  to  Japan,  where 
he  served  the  Church  as  a  pastor,  after  which  he  was 
chosen  to  open  missionary  work  among  the  Japanese  in 
Korea.  His  work  has  so  grown  that,  as  already  noted, 
he  is  now  District  Superintendent.  It  is  difficult  to  sep- 
arate Home  and  Foreign  mission  work.  They  are  essen- 
tially one.  But  this  great  work  of  Brother  Kihara,  like 
that  already  mentioned,  is  the  direct  result  of  Home 
missionary  work  in  San  Francisco.  I  could  mention 
others,  many  others,  but  time  fails  me.  Up  to  1900  our 
San  Francisco  work  alone  produced  nine  preachers, 
most  of  them  remarkably  successful.  During  the  same 
period,  or  a  little  later,  our  little  Oakland  Mission,  across 
the  bay,  produced  six,  one  of  whom,  Z.  Hirota,  is  now 
the  successful  pastor  of  our  Japan  Church  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. After  laboring  in  Hawaii  as  a  missionary,  he 
went  to  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  for  study.  He  is  rec- 
ognized as  the  greatest  Japanese  scholar  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  This  is  Home  Mission  work.  Does  it  pay? 
Our  Portland  Church  has  produced  four  preachers,  one 
of  whom  is  in  Hawaii,  one  in  Japan,  and  two  are  about 
to  graduate  from  Kimball  School  of  Theology  in  Ore- 
gon and  to  enter  our  Coast  work. 

Possibly  with  the  exceptions  of  our  two  new 
missions  in  Colorado,  in  Denver  and  Pueblo,  all  of  our 
Japanese  Churches  have  raised  up  from  one  to  nine 
Japanese   preachers,  who   are  preaching  the   Gospel   m 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  i  cj  i 

America,  in  Hawaii,  in  Japan  or  in  Korea.     Who  can 
estimate  the  influence? 

But  our  Japanese  missions  have  produced  great  lay- 
men as  well.  I  have  mentioned  Hon.  T.  Ando.  Let 
me  speak  briefly  of  two  others.  Sho  Nemoto  went  out 
from  our  mission  in  Oakland  or  in  San  Francisco  to  the 
University  of  Vermont,  and  then  to  Japan,  where  he 
entered  politics.  As  a  member  of  the  Lower  House  of 
the  National  District  he  caused  to  be  passed  an  anti- 
tobacco  bill,  applicable  to  minors  under  twenty  years  of 
age,  which  was  endorsed  by  the  Upper  House  and  by 
the  then  Minister  of  Education  in  a  special  rescript. 
Who  can  estimate  its  influence?  And  this  is  the  influ- 
ence of  Home  Mission  work  among  the  Japanese  in 
California.  This  same  man  secured  the  passage  of  an 
anti-liquor  law  through  the  Lower  House,  which  came 
very  near  passing  the  Upper  House.  The  cause  of  tem- 
perance reform  in  Japan,  which  has  made  such  remark- 
able progress  in  the  recent  years,  has  its  origin  and  in- 
spiration in  the  Christian  Church,  and  is  largely  due  to 
the  influence  of  our  Pacific  Coast  work.  One  other  il- 
lustration only :  When  the  Lay  Electoral  Conference  in 
Japan  wanted  a  man  to  represent  it  in  the  last  General 
Conference,  before  the  Union  was  consummated,  they 
looked  to  a  successful  merchant,  who,  during  the  late 
war,  did  a  large  importing  business  for  the  Japanese  gov- 
ernment. It  was  T.  Fujiware,  one  of  our  Pacific  Coast 
converts.     I  have  recently  examined  the  records  of  our 


1 5  2  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

churches  in  San  Francisco  and  Oakland.  There  are 
successful  merchants,  doctors,  dentists,  photographers, 
editors,  teachers,  etc.,  both  in  America  and  in  Japan, 
and  many  who  are  in  government  employ  in  influential 
postions.  More  than  a  score  have  graduated  from  such 
universities  as  Harvard,  Columbia,  Cornell,  Michigan, 
Clark,  California,  Stanford,  University  of  the  Pacific, 
Northwestern,  etc.  These  are  only  a  few.  The  same  is 
true  of  all  our  missions.  Until  recently  young  men  have 
predominated  in  our  Japanese  churches,  which  are  in- 
stitutional. As  already  noted,  they  have  come  from  all 
parts  of  Japan,  and  their  influence  it  is  impossible  to 
calculate.  Now,  much  is  being  done  in  and  for  fam- 
ilies. And  here  again  the  influence  of  our  work  is  in- 
calculable. 

I  have  given  illustrations  from  former  days  simply 
because  our  older  men  have  become  more  prominent 
than  those  who  are  still  with  us.  This  is  natural.  But 
the  golden  age  of  our  mission  work  is  not  behind  us. 
This  is  easily  recognized  when  we  consider  the  baptisms 
of  recent  years,  and  the  gifts  and  spirit  of  our  Japanese 
Christians. 

After  a  strenuous  campaign  of  two  or  three  weeks 
in  Southern  California  I  returned  to  San  Francisco  last 
Easter  morning  just  in  time  to  preach  in  our  new 
church,  which  seats,  not  including  gallery,  over  three 
hundred.  It  was  well  filled  and  beautifully  decoraited. 
After  the  sermon  the  children  and  their  teachers  gath- 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  153 

ered  from  the  rooms  below  and  it  was  my  privilege  to 
baptize  thirteen  of  the  children  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight.  Not  including  chil- 
dren, of  whom  there  have  been  many,  we  have  baptized 
between  eight  and  nine  hundred  adults  since  I  succeeded 
Bishop  Harris,  seven  years  ago.  And  baptisms  represent 
conversions,  for  we  maintain  that  baptism  is  "an  out- 
ward and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  spiritual  grace.**  A 
few  weeks  ago,  after  preaching  in  Japanese  in  our  Sac- 
ramento Mission,  I  gave  the  invitation  and  three  young 
men  arose  for  prayer.  They  came  to  the  altar  and  two 
came  through  in  good  Methodist  fashion.  The  other 
one  returned  home  in  spiritual  darkness.  He  retired  for 
the  night,  but  could  not  sleep.  He  arose  and  read  his 
Bible  and  engaged  in  earnest  prayer,  and  God'  met  him 
as  he  did  you.  The  pastor.  Brother  Yoshida,  a  product 
of  our  Coast  Japanese  work,  by  the  way,  wrote  me  the 
particulars,  and  said  that  while  he  prayed,  a  flood  of 
light  burst  in  upon  his  soul,  which  was  filled  with  peace 
which  passeth  understanding,  and  with  joy  unutterable 
and  full  of  glory.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  anything  of  the 
kind  among  our  American  people?  Our  Asiatic  friends 
come  to  the  Lord  just  as  we  do,  by  repentance  toward 
God  and  faith  in  the  Lord,  Jesus  Christ.  Some  months 
ago  there  was  a  serious  railroad  accident  in  Southern 
California.  Several  races  were  represented.  When  the 
surgeons  came  to  perform  the  operations  no  questions 
were  asked  as  to  which  were  born  in  the  United  States, 


1 54  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

which  in  Mexico  and  which  in  Japan.  There  was  no 
discrimination.  All  were  treated  alike — ^first  come  first 
served — ^because  they  were  human  beings;  they  were 
men.  Would  to  God  that  all  of  our  people  would  come 
to  look  upon  them  in  the  same  way  in  the  matter  of  heal- 
ing the  awful  disease  of  sin  sickness! 

One  evidence  of  conversion  is  the  willingness  of 
the  converts  to  support  the  various  enterprises  of  the 
Church.  Instead  of  quoting  totals,  I  will  indicate  the 
giving  of  our  Christians  per  capita.  And  in  place  of 
naming  the  amount  for  one  year,  I  will  give  it  per  year 
for  the  last  seven  years.  As  you  know,  our  averages 
are  frequently  thrown  out  by  our  people  giving  on  a 
spurt  for  a  given  year  for  church  building  or  indebted- 
ness. More  than  our  average  American  Christians  our 
Japanese  and  Chinese  Christians  on  the  Coast  are  migra- 
tory. There  are  many  who  cannot  be  found  when  the 
collections  are  taken,  though,  for  the  most  part,  they 
are  faithful.  Including,  then,  all  our  Christians,  present 
and  absent,  men,  women  and  children,  our  Methoodist 
Japanese  Christians  on  the  Coast  have  given,  per  capita, 
per  year,  for  the  last  seven  years — how  much  do  you 
think?  Ten  dollars  would  be  good  giving  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, would  it  not?  They  gave  more  than  fifteen 
— more  than  twenty.  They  gave  $20.43  P^^  capita  per 
>ear  for  the  last  seven  years.  The  members  did  not 
give  it  all.  Their  outside  friends  helped  some  in  the 
matter  of  property.     But  this  very  fact  shows  the  good 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  155 

standing  of  our  Christians.  This  is  good  giving,  and 
should  indicate  that  our  Japanese  are  converted  clear 
down  to  their  pocketbooks. 

A  word  or  two  concerning  the  spirit  of  our  Chris- 
tians :  Recently  our  strenuous  and  honored  ex-Presi- 
dent, Mr.  Roosevelt,  came  to  California  to  deliver  the 
Charter  Day  address  at  the  University  of  California,  and 
the  Earl  lectures  before  the  Pacific  Theological  Seminary. 
As  he  was  to  speak  on  moral  topics,  I  wrote  to  our  Japa- 
nese pastors  in  Central  California,  and  invited  them  to 
come,  assuring  them  that  they  could  surely  hear  him,  as 
I  had  secured  special  tickets.  Our  pastor  at  Sacramento, 
Brother  Loshida,  to  whom  I  have  already  referred, 
thanked  me  for  my  thought  fulness,  and  stated  that  the 
Japanese  all  admired  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  that  it  would  be 
a  great  privilege  to  hear  him  or  even  to  see  him.  How- 
ever, he  added,  'T  am  engaged  in  a  great  work  which  I 
cannot  leave.  Since  you  were  here  and  the  young  men 
were  converted,  the  Lord  has  been  graciously  working, 
and  we  have  a  great  opportunity  if  we  continue  the 
work."  He  sacrificed  personal  pleasure  and  stayed  by 
his  job. 

A  year  or  so  ago  I  was  in  need  of  a  pastor  for  our 
Portland  church  in  Oregon.  I  wrote  to  a,  young  man  in 
Chicago  who  had  previously  served  as  pastor  at  River- 
side. He  went  East  for  further  preparation  in  Chicago, 
but  found  a  great  opportunity  for  work  among  his  coun- 
trymen.    He  thanked  me  for  the  invitation,  expressed 


156  The  Co7iservahon  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

his  appreciation  of  the  opportunity  for  work  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast,  and  then  added  that  he  felt  a  special  call  to 
remain  and  work  among  his  countrymen  in  Chicago.  In 
contrast  with  a  stated  salary  and  a  well  organized  church 
in  Portland,  there  was  not  a  dollar  to  support  his  work 
in  Chicago.  Dr.  Rowe,  the  Superintendent  of  City  Mis- 
sions, was  sympathetic  and  wished  to  assist,  but  was 
unable.  Brother  Shimadzu,  after  having  served  as  a 
regular  pastor,  and  after  studying  for  years  in  the  uni- 
versity there,  voluntarily  chose  to  stay  by  his  people 
there  and  support  his  mission  by  his  own  hands,  working 
as  a  house  servant,  rather  than  come  to  the  Coast,  where 
a  comfortable  salary  awaited  him.  He  simply  recog- 
nized an  opportunity  and  a  corresponding  obligation. 
That  is  the  kind  of  men  that  God  can  honor  and  use. 
Five  years  ago,  when  the  great  fire  following  the 
earthquake  in  San  Francisco  was  raging,  our  Christians 
saw  that  our  Church,  which  they  greatly  loved,  must  go. 
Forgetful  of  self,  they  took  down  the  pictures  of  their 
former  superintendents,  Dr  Otis  Gibson  and  Bishop 
Harris,  from  the  wall,  and,  lifting  tenderly  the  pulpit 
Bible  from  the  desk,  carried  them  to  the  back  yard  and 
hurried  them  in  a  large  hole  in  the  sand.  They  then 
fled  to  one  of  the  parks,  where  I  found  them  the  next 
day.  Later,  when  the  fire  had  done  its  worst  and  the 
ground  was  cool,  they  returned  to  the  church  lot,  opened 
the  earth  again  and  brought  forth  the  Bible  and  the  pic- 
tures.    Today  they  occupy  a  conspicuous  place  in  our 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  157 

new  and  beautiful  church  in  San  Francisco.  These  were 
Japanese — not  preachers,  but  ordinary  Christians.  They 
simply  appreciated  their  fomier  teachers  and  loved  the 
word  of  God.    But  it  was  beautiful. 

As  a  further  illustration  of  their  devotion,  our  Japa- 
nese preachers  annually  come  from  all  parts  of  this  great 
West  to  our  Annual  Mission  Meeting,  at  their  own  ex- 
pense or  the  expense  of  their  churches,  without  the  cost 
of  a  cent  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church 
Extensions — one  from  Colorado,  three  from  Washing- 
ton, one  from  Oregon,  and  upwards  of  a  dozen  from 
different  parts  of  California. 

One  more  illustration:  A  few  years  ago  a  tele- 
gram came  to  me  announcing  the  sudden  passing  of  one 
of  our  preachers,  a  local  preacher,  by  the  way.  God 
bless  the  local  preachers.  I  went  as  quickly  as  possible, 
and  carefully  investigated  the  circumstances.  The  night 
before,  after  supper,  he  gathered  the  young  men  in  the 
mission  for  family  worship.  He  read  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  and  led  in  prayer.  They 
all  prayed.  He  then  retired  and  all  was  quiet.  It  was 
afterward  learned  that  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  former 
Presiding  Elder.  Later  they  heard  a  noise  and  dis- 
covered that  he  was  again  engaged  in  prayer.  In  the 
morning,  as  he  did  not  appear,  one  of  them  called,  and 
later  called  again.  As  there  was  no  response,  they 
opened  the  door  and  beheld  Brother  Rokujubu  appar- 
ently asleep-^-yes,  he  was  asleep,  asleep  in  Jesus.     And 


158  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

I  wish  to  say  to  you  that  when  the  time  comes  for  me 
to  close  my  labors  here,  if  I  can  pass  away  under  cir- 
cumstances so  satisfactory  to  myself  and  to  my  friends 
I  shall  count  myself  exceedingly  happy.  All  who  knew 
him,  Christian  and  non-Christian,  American  and  Japa- 
nese, spoke  highly  of  him.  They  revere  his  memory. 
Our  Japanese  Christians  live  well.    They  die  well. 

But  my  time  is  passing  and  I  must  say  a  few  words 
about  the  Koreans  among  us,  and  also  concerning  the 
more  recent  comers,  the  Hindoos,  though  they  are  not 
Mongolians.  There  are  probably  not  more  than  five 
thousand  of  both,  and  both  peoples  are  widely  scattered 
here. 

There  is  no  other  mission  field  today  in  which  there 
is  a  deeper  interest  than  Korea.  Think  of  a  Presby- 
terian prayer  meeting  in  North  Korea  with  an  average 
weekly  attendance  of  1,200!  And  think  of  the  Korean 
Christians  banding  themselves  together  in  prayer  and  ef- 
fort to  win  a  million  converts  in  twelve  short  months! 
It  is  one  of  the  most  inspiring  events  in  all  missionary 
history.  A  few  years  ago,  when  the  Koreans  began 
emigrating,  several  thousand  came  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  a  large  percentage  being  Christians.  Dr.  Wad- 
man,  a  former  fellow  worker  in  Japan,  and  since  1904 
the  honored  Superintendent  of  Hawaiian  Mission  of  our 
Church,  was  there  to  meet  them  and  to  extend  to  them 
a  welcome  in  the  name  of  the  Church.  A  great  work 
has  been  done,  not  only  by  him  and  the  native  pastors 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  159 

that  have  been  raised  up,  but  also  by  the  representatives 
of  our  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society.  Their 
splendid  Susanna  Wesley  Home  is  a  home  indeed  for 
the  Japanese  and  Korean  women  and  children,  as  is  also 
the  Ellen  Stark  Ford  Memorial  Home  in  San  Francisco. 
They  have  more  recently  established  a  home  in  Los  An- 
geles, and  are  about  opening  another  in  Seattle. 

The  Koreans  not  only  came  to  Hawaii,  but  also  to 
the  Coast.  I  at  once  recognized  the  opportunity  and 
communicated  with  the  Missionary  Office  in  New  York. 
I  was  assured  that  no  other  Protestant  denomination 
had  plans  for  opening  work,  and  also  that  our  great 
Church  had  no  funds  with  which  to  do  so.  But  I  be- 
gan in  a  humble  way,  drawing  checks  on  the  Bank  of 
Faith  to  pay  the  bills.  The  Board  of  Missions  later 
helped  me.  Conditions  were  greatly  changed  by  the 
earthquake  and  fire,  and  an  exchange  was  made  with 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  they  withdraw- 
ing from  Japanese  work  in  San  Francisco  in  our  favor, 
and  we  turning  our  Korean  work  to  them,  as  they  had 
money  to  support  it,  and  a  Korean-speaking  missionary 
to  superintend  it,  in  the  person  of  Dr.  Reid.  I  mention 
this  as  a  proof  that  we  are  not  wasting  missionary  money 
in  our  Asiatic  work  on  the  Coast,  but  are  so  co-operat- 
ing as  to  make  the  dollars  contributed  accomplish  as 
much  as  possible. 

About  the  same  time  that  we  began  work  in  San 
Francisco  we  opened  mission  work  for  Koreans  in  Los 


i6o  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Angeles,  being-  fortunate  to  have  as  a  superintendent  a 
returned  missionary  from  Korea,  in  the  person  of  Mrs. 
Florence  Sherman.  For  years  she  conducted  a  Home 
in  that  city,  having  as  her  assistant  and  co-worker 
Brother  Hugh  Cynn  (not  Sin).  Not  only  did  he  assist 
her,  but  he  took  a  regular  course  in  our  University  of 
Southern  California  and  graduated  with  honor.  The 
First  Methodist  Church  of  Los  Angeles  recently  sent 
him  out  as  a  missionary  to  his  people  in  Korea.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  suspicion  and  hatred  of  the  Koreans 
and  Japanese  for  each  other,  I  wish  to  mention  an  inci- 
dent :  Brother  Cynn  chose  to  go  on  the  Japanese  line, 
when  he  might  have  gone  on  an  American  ship,  and 
asked  me  to  make  the  arrangements  for  his  outgoing. 
Imagine  his  surprise  on  arrival  at  the  ship,  with  his 
wife  and  babies,  to  find  that  the  Japanese  had  given 
them  a  first-class  cabin  at  a  second-class  price  and  a 
missionary  discount  off  of  that!  Would  that  our  people 
would  come  to  take  not  only  a  grain  of  salt,  but  more, 
when  they  hear  the  sensational  statements  concerning 
the  relations  of  the  Japanese  and  the  Koreans,  both  here 
and  across  the  Pacific! 

On  account  of  the  fewness  of  numbers  and  their 
being  so  widely  scattered,  no  Mission  Board  has  so  far 
felt  it  expedient  to  open  work  among  the  Hindus  in  this 
country,  most  of  whom  are  found  in  California.  But 
there  is  an  interdenominational  society  that  has  been  able 
to  do  so.    I  refer  to  the  American  Bible  Society.    I  won- 


Our  Mongolian  Peoples  i6i 

der  if  we  realize  what  a  missionary  organization  it  is. 
More  than  once  it  has  scattered  the  Bible,  or  portions  of 
it,  all  over  this  country  like  leaves  before  an  autumn 
wind.  It  has  its  agents  in  Nfew  York  and  Boston,  San 
Francisco  and  Seattle  and  other  ports,  with  scriptures  in 
the  various  languages  of  our  immigrants,  and  who  can 
tell  of  the  influence  of  the  blessed  work?  Fortunately, 
the  Pacific  Coast  agent.  Dr.  Mell,  is  a  returned  mission- 
ary from  India,  who  knows  the  people  and  loves  them 
and  is  able  to  work  among  them. 

The  people  all  over  this  and  other  English  speaking 
countries  have  lately  been  engaged  in  celebrating  the 
three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  translation  of  our 
King  James  version  of  the  English  Bible.  It  is  a  great 
event.  Speakers  like  Mr  .Roosevelt,  of  international 
reputation,  have  paid  their  tribute  to  the  Bible,  and  the 
work  of  the  various  Bible  societies.  But  there  is  to  be 
a  greater  celebration — God  only  knows  when — in  which 
we  can  all  participate,  when  the  people  gather  from  the 
East  and  West,  from  the  North  and  South,  white  and 
black,  yellow  and  brown,  and  of  every  color,  to  sing  the 
song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb,  at  which  time  the  splendid 
work  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  the  British  Bible 
Society  and  all  the  other  agencies  for  spreading  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  word  of  God  will  be  truly  celebrated. 

In  our  missionary  work  among  our  Mongolian  peo- 
ple here  we  have  a  great  opportunity  and  a  correspond- 
ing obligation.    God  help  us  all  to  recognize  both.    And 


1 62  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

let  us  not  make  the  mistake  of  concluding  that  because 
the  people  are  comparatively  few  and  the  results  some- 
what meager,  that  the  work  is  not  important,.  We  are 
dealing  with  forces,  not  results.  There  is  no  greater 
temptation  to  the  missionary  today,  at  home  or  abroad, 
than  to  pad  reports  because  of  the  demand  for  results. 
Again  I  repeat,  we  are  dealing  with  forces,  and  not  with 
results.  Who  can  estimate  the  influences  which  have 
been  set  in  motion  here?  Every  evangelistic  or  social 
or  other  force  set  in  motion  here  that  makes  for  the  up- 
lift of  the  Mongolian  peoples  is  bound  to  have  untold 
influ^ence,  not  only  here,  but  in  Hawaii,  in  Japan,  in 
Korea,  in  China,  in  India — yea,  throughout  all  of  Asia, 
if  not  the  world. 


THE  ITALIANS  AND  OTHER  IMMIGRANTS. 

REV.    DR.    FREDERICK    H.    WRIGHT. 

I  make  my  plea  especially  for  my  Italian  friend, 
for  you  know  I  love  him.  I  have  been  with  him  for 
twelve  years;  I  ought  to  know  him. 

Could  you  imagine  me  as  an  Italian  just  arrived  in 
this  country  ?  I  come  with  broken  speech.  I  have  been 
in  this  country  only  "seexa  mont.'*  I  am  having  a  hard 
time  to  make  myself  understood ;  Americans  are  expect- 
ing a  great  deal  of  me.  It  was  only  in  1870  that  Victor 
Emanuel  entered  Rome  and  gave  a  united  Italy  to  the 
world.  Prior  to  that  a  'x-nuzzle  had  been  put  upon  the 
mouth,  heart  and  mind.  Bishops  Vincent  and  Hurst 
told  me  that  when  they  went  to  Rome  before  1870  they 
were  not  allowed  to  take  their  New  Testaments  with 
them.  No  Bible  could  be  brought  into  Rome.  When 
the  Italian  army  entered  that  city  there  went  also  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
taking  with  him  Bibles  on  a  wheelbarrow.  Now  we 
have  a  Bible  depository  at  Rome.  Anyone  can  read  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  right  in  the  Eternal  City. 
Things  do  move.  The  world  is  going  forward.  Well, 
just  imagine  me,  a  green  Italian,  only  six  months  from 


1 64  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

my  native  land,  trying  to  impress  you  with  the  fact  that 
I  ought  to  have  a  fair  chance. 

Wat  for  you  call  me  "Dago  man," 

An'  make  so  bad  a  face? 
Ees  no  room  for  Eetalian 

Een  deesa  bigga  place? 

I  s'uppose  you  are  more  better  dan 

Da  Dago  man  could  be. 
But  pleesa,  Meester  'Merican, 

I  ask  you  wait  an*  see. 

How  long  you  leeva  een  deesa  land? 

Eh,  thirtha-seven  year? 
Ees  onla  seexa  mont',  my  fraud, 

Seence  I  am  comin'  here. 

I  wish  you  geeve  me  time  for  try 

An'  see  w'at  I  can  do. 
So  mebba  I  gon'  be,  bimeby, 

So  good  a  man  like  you. 

Baycause  I  am  so  strong,  I  guess 

I  gon'  do  pretty  wel, 
So  long  I  stand  to  beezaness, 

An'  jus'  bayhave  my  sal'. 

My  leeta  chidron,  too,  ees  strong — 

Eh?     Yo  no  gota  none? 
Yo  married,  Meester?     Eh?     How  long? 

Twalve  year  an'  no  got  wan? 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  165 

O !  I  am  sad  for  yo,  my  f rand, — 

Eh!  Why  you  laugh  at  me? 
Excuse,  I  do  not  ondrastand; 

I  am  so  strange,  yo  see. 

My  "keeds  ees  no  good  breed,"  yo  say? 

Ah,  wal,  ees  mebbe  not, 
But  dey  weel  be  more  good  som'  day 

Dan  dose  yo  don'ta  got; 

An'  dey  be  strong  'Merican, 

More  strong  dan  yo  are,  too. 
Ees  notta  many  Dago  man 

So  skeenny  Hka  you. 

O!  please,  'my  friend,  no  gotta  mad! 

Shak'   han*  bay  fore  yo  go. 
Excuse  me!  I  am  so  sad 

For  speakin'  to  you  so. 

But  w^y  yo  call  me  "Dago  man," 

An'  make  so  bada  face? 
Eees  no  room  for  Eetalian 

Een  deesa  bigga  place? 

He  is  making  his  appeal  to  you  this  morning.  He 
comes  with  the  best  blood  of  Europe  coursing  through 
his  veins.  He  asks  you  to  give  him  a  chance.  The  blood 
of  Abraham  is  in  the  Italian.  Can  you  look  at  an  Ital- 
ian and  not  see  that  there  is  some  strain  of  Jewish  blood 
in  him?  Sometimes  I  cannot  tell  one  from  another. 
The  blood  of  Ishmael  is  there,  for  when  Mohammedan- 


1 66  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

ism  caxTie,  with  its  struggle  to  dominate  southern  Europe, 
it  left  its  impress,  its  name,  and  even  its  language,  on 
the  people.  The  best  peoples  of  Europe  are  mixed  in 
with  the  modern  Italian,  the  noble  Roman,  the  religious 
Celt,  the  glorious  Greek,  the  dashing  Spaniard,  the  acute 
Frenchman,  the  intellectual  Norman.  Yes,  the  old 
NorsCxTian  is  there,  with  his  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  and 
in  the  tenth  century  he  built  up  a  civilization  in  Sicily 
which  w^as  considered  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  world. 
I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  this  Italian,  who  has  done 
so  much  for  the  world,  is  coming  again  to  the  knowledge 
of  Jesus.  The  other  day  I  helped  to  receive  thirty 
Italian  miners  into  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
They  gave  me  a  collection  for  Home  Missions.  Last 
year  our  Italian  Mission  raised  $1,500  for  benevolent 
purposes.  Our  Board  of  Home  Missions  has  shown 
great  faith  in  the  Italians,  and  this  year  has  appropriated 
$35,760  for  distribution  in  the  territory  covered  by  the 
Italian  Mission,  besides  giving  to  other  cities  farther 
west.  God  be  praised  for  great  opportunities  given  us 
to  help  these  Italians  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus.  They 
are  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  if  they  do 
not  get  this  knowledge  by  our  instrumentality,  they  will 
not  get  it  at  all.  I  say  this  without  any  desire  to  unduly 
criticise  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  I  am  simply  deal- 
ing with  a  fact.  The  vast  majority  of  Italians  never 
darken  the  door  of  a  church,  and  they  have  no  use  for 
the  priest.  These  wx  must  reach  with  the  Gospel  or 
they  will  become  a  menace  to  us, 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  167 

A  little  while  ago  I  was  in  an  Eastern  city,  attend- 
ing the  dedication  of  an  Italian  chapel.  Just  before 
reaching  the  city  a  lot  of  Italians  boarded  the  train.  By 
my  side  sat  a  Down  East  Yankee,  who  did  not  know  I 
was  interested  in  the  little  man  from  the  Southland. 
He  said,  among  other  things :  "The  Italians  are  the 
best  citizens  we  have.  I  have  been  in  business  twenty- 
five  years,  and  I  say  to  you  frankly,  I  would  rather  trust 
an  Italian  than  a  Down  East  Yankee." 

The  Italians  in  the  city  referred  to  are  skilled  work- 
men, none  getting  less  than  $2.50  a  day,  and  some 
$10.00.  They  are  strongly  anti-clerical.  Not  a  man, 
woman  or  child  darkens  the  door  of  the  Roman  Church. 
What  are  you  going  to  do  with  them?  To  show  how 
they  feel,  the  Sunday  School  Association  of  the  State 
tried  to  take  a  census  of  the  church-going  element,  but 
the  Italians  issued  some  dodgers  urging  their  compa- 
triots to  refuse  to  give  the  desired  information.  They 
wished  everybody  to  know  that  the  Italian  colony  was 
anti-religious  as  well  as  anti-clerical.  There  is  a  fearful 
outlook  for  that  city  unless  we  can  in  some  way  reach 
the  parents  through  the  children.  This  we  are  trying 
to  do,  and  recent  reports  bring  news  of  great  progress. 

Recently  I  attended  a  celebration  in  one  of  our  large 
cities,  where  I  addressed  forty-five  Italian  anarchists.  I 
do  not  know  whether  they  knew  that  I  was  a  preacher. 
To  have  said,  "Let  us  pray,"  w^ould  have  been  a  signal 
for  them  to  leave,  so  I  decided  that  I  must  try  and  dis- 


1 68  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

cover  some  point  of  contact.  I  accordingly  began  'iny 
religious  service  by  asking  a  very  pertinent  question — 
some  might  call  it  impertinent,  but  I  did  not  mean  it  to 
be:  "Boys,  do  you  believe  in  the  Pope?"  They  were 
young  fellows,  none  more  than  thirty-five  or  forty  years 
of  age,  and  none  under  twenty,  bright,  intelligent  fel- 
lows, and  some  of  them  prosperous  business  men.  They 
all  shouted  ''No."  I  repHed,  "Neither  do  I,  except  that 
I  believe  he  is  a  sinner,  like  the  rest  of  us,  and  if  he  goes 
to  Heaven  he  will  go  the  same  way  you  and  I  do."  They 
all  nodded  approval,  and  I  had  won  my  point.  I  asked 
again:  "Boys,  do  you  believe  in  the  confessional?" 
They  shouted  "No."  I  rejoined,  "Neither  do  I.  I  be- 
lieve we  ought  to  pray  God  direct  and  confess  to  Him 
our  sins."  They  again  nodded  their  heads,  and  I  had 
won  my  second  point  of  contact.  I  spoke  of  the  celibacy 
of  the  priests,  and  asked  various  other  questions  con- 
cerning the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church, 
and  I  found  that  they  believed  in  nothing.  Now,  what 
ought  one  to  do  with  such  a  cOxUpany?  Should  we 
count  them  Romanists?  Surely  our  brethren  of  the 
Roman  faith  would  not  like  to  reckon  such  a  crowd  as 
true  Catholics.  Ought  I  to  avoid  proselyting?  My 
business  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be  a  prose- 
lyter  from  the  devil,  and  these  men  were  going  in  the 
wrong  direction.  Here  was  my  opportunity  to  help 
them.  I  said :  "Boys,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
not  got  the  monopoly  of  the  Christian  faith.     If  you  do 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  169 

not  go  to  that  church,  come  to  us;  we  will  do  you  good." 
Then  I  commenced  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Tears  came 
to  the  eyes  of  several,  and  at  the  close  of  my  address  I 
invited  them  all  to  pray  with  me.  Every  one  of  those 
forty-five  anarchists  knelt  right  down  there  and  prayed 
audibly  with  me.  What  was  the  result?  Hear  me. 
Out  of  those  forty-five  irreligious  men,  thirty-five  are 
now  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  gracious  work  done  in  their  hearts, 
I  submit  to  you  that  such  missionary  work  meant  the 
saving  of  thirty-five  danger  points  in  our  American  civ- 
ilization. Is  it  not  worth  while  to  do  some  so-called 
proselyting,  notwithstanding  the  adverse  criticisms  of 
certain  dignitaries  of  the  Roman  Church? 

Despite  all  the  opportunities  for  work  among  the 
Italians,  we  cannot  disguise  the  fact  that  there  is  strong 
prejudice  in  the  minds  of  Americans  against  these  Ital- 
ians, and  a  little  poem  by  T.  A.  Daly,  written  in  broken 
English  and  breathing  a  wonderful  sympathy  for  these 
immigrants  from  Italy,  illustrates  what  this  prejudice 
produces : 

"Leetla  Joe,  he  always  say, 
When  I  am  beeg  man  som'  day, 
Eef  so  be  I  gona  grow 
Strong  an'  fat,  so  like  my  pop 
I  weell  go  for  be  a  cop, 
Mebbe  so, 


1 70  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Soocha  talk  for  four-year-old ! 
Dongh  he  brag  so  beeg  an'  bold, 
Een  wan  handa  you  could  hold, 
Leetla  Joe. 

Leetla  Joe,  he  lay  hees  cheek 
On  my  brest  w'en  he  ees  seeck. 
Squeeze  my  arm  an'  tal'  me:  O! 
Pretta  soon  I  gona  gat 
Qranda  muscle  lika  dat. 

W'en  I  grow 
Like  my  pop,  how  proud  I  be ! 
Justa  wait  an'  you  weel  see, 
Ah !  so  sweet  to  hug  me, 

Leetla  Joe! 

But  because  I'm  'fraid  dat  he 
Wan  day  would  be  'shame'  of  me — 
'Shame  for  call  me  "pop,"  an'  know 
W'en  he's  fina  'Merican 
I'm  so  poor  old  Dagoman — 

W'en  I  go 
Where  hees  grave  ees  on  da  heell, 
Dere  ees  joy  for  me  to  feel 
Dat  my  heart  can  keep  heem  steell, 

Leetla  Joe." 

The  little  Italian  boy  breaks  away  from  the  past  and 
declares  himself  to  be  no  longer  an  Italian,  but  an  Amer- 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  171 

ican.  We  must  honor  him  for  that,  but  if  our  preju- 
dice against  his  father  and  mother  nicknames  them  and 
puts  a  barrier  between  parent  and  child,  then,  I  say,  we 
are  doing  a  great  wrong  both  to  the  child  and  to  the 
parent.  Away,  then,  with  this  prejudice.  Stop  nick- 
naming these  foreigners  and  apply  a  little  of  the  golden 
rule,  and  we  shall  be  veritable  preachers  of  righteous- 
ness. 

There  are  some  Americans  who  have  the  impression 
that  the  element  which  is  coming  over  to  this  country 
from  Italy  is  undesirable,  that  it  is  the  riff-raff  of  Italy, 
but  the  sooner  the  better  we  disabuse  ourselves  of  this 
notion.  The  undeveloped  brain  with  the  best  brawn 
and  muscle  represents  the  Italian  immigration.  The 
Italian  government  is  becoming  alamied  over  the  tre- 
mendous emigration  and  are  taking  steps  to  induce  their 
citizens  to  stay  in  Italy.  This  surely  would  not  indicate 
that  it  is  'the  riff-raff  that  is  coming  here.  To  speak  of 
Italians,  in  the  minds  of  some  people,  is  to  speak  of  so 
many  "black  hands,"  but  this  is  a  gross  exaggeration. 
A  very  small  percentage  of  the  Italian  immigrants  is 
dangerous.  The  vast  majority  are  good,  honest,  indus- 
trious, ambitious,  desirable  citizens,  and  already  are 
proving  this  by  the  results  that  are  being  achieved  by 
their  children  in  school,  college  and  commercial  circles. 
This  riff-raff  you  hear  so  much  about  is  not  riff-raff.  I 
will  prove  it  in  two  minutes.  When  they  want  to  come 
here  they  get  a  declaration  from  the  mayor  of  the  city 


172  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

where  they  were  born,  testifying  to  their  good  character, 
and  to  the  fact  that  there  is  no  criminal  record  against 
them.  This  they  take  to  the  American  consul  at  the 
port  where  they  sail  from.  The  steamship  company  has 
a  man  watching  to  see  that  no  undesirable  immigrant 
gets  on  board,  for  they  know  very  well  that  if  he  suc- 
ceeds they  will  have  to  bring  him  back  at  their  own 
expense  and  feed  him  on  the  way.  The  selfish  motive 
is  thus  appealed  to,  and  the  steamship  representative 
watches  most  carefully.  In  addition  to  this,  a  'medical 
inspector  is  sent  from  this  country  who  carefully  in- 
quires into  the  physical  condition  of  every  immigrant 
that  goes  on  board.  When  they  get  to  New  York,  they 
are  subjected  to  a  more  severe  examination,  and  if  any 
of  you  have  been  present  at  Ellis  Island,  you  will  have 
seen,  as  I  have,  that  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  pass  through 
that  ordeal.  Don't  tell  me  that  such  an  ele/nent  is  riff- 
raff. Once  in  a  while  a  bad  man  or  a  bad  woman  may 
slip  through  the  hands  of  the  inspectors,  for  no  system 
is  perfect,  but,  in  general,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  the 
very  best  comes  to  us.  The  trouble  is,  that  when  these 
poor  immigrants  arrive  in  this  country  they  are  sub- 
jected to  the  severest  kind  of  tests  by  the  society  they 
are  thrown  into.  They  learn  to  drink  our  beer  and 
whiskey,  and  our  beautiful  American  civilization  some- 
times ruins  these  poor  fellows.  I  saw  more  drunken 
men  the  first  week  I  was  back  in  this  country  than  in  all 
my  six  years  of  sojourn  in  Italy. 


1  he  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  173 

Pennit  me  in  closing  to  tell  you  a  story  of  Italy 
and  Italians  which  may  help  you  to  understand  who 
these  Italians  are,  and  what  we  owe  to  them.  I  once 
started  on  a  trip  through  my  district  in  southern  Italy 
under  circumstances  which  I  shall  never  forget.  I  was 
packed  in  a  postal  diligence  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  rode  for  six  hours  under  very  painful  condi- 
tions. Then  I  found  a  mule  waiting  for  me,  and  for 
three  more  hours  I  struggled  on  to  reach  my  destination. 
Arriving  there,  I  found  myself  so  stiff  that  I  could  not 
get  off  the  back  of  the  mule.  The  Italians,  however, 
have  an  expressive  way  of  describing  "stiffness,"  for 
one  of  them  that  helped  me  off  whispered  to  the  other 
brother  who  had  come  to  my  rescue,  "He  is  in  one 
piece.''  They  rolled  off  the  "one  piece,"  which  limbered 
up  and  then  went  inside,  where  a  crowd  of  men  and 
women  had  gathered.  The  only  light  in  that  dark  kitch- 
en was  from  the  doorway,  and  the  jam  was  so  great 
that  at  midday  in  sunny  Italy  I  had  to  call  for  a  light  to 
read  the  baptismal  service.  Three  little  tots  were  bap- 
tized and  sixty  men  and  women  received  for  the  first 
time  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  amid  a  hush 
as  sacred  as  anything  I  ever  felt.  At  such  a  meeting 
as  this,  a  woman  came  up  to  me  one  evening  and  said: 
"Signore,  I  hear  that  you  are  going  to  America.  I  won- 
der whether  you  will  see  my  husband?"  I  told  her  that 
America  was  a  big  place,  but  she  repHed:  "O,  yes,  I 
know  that,  but  I  have  a  letter  from  him."     And  with 


1 74  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

that,  she  drew  froxH  the  place  nearest  her  heart  a  letter, 
and  asked  me  if  I  would  read  it.  I  would  like  to  de- 
scribe this  woman  to  you.  She  was  barefooted,  had  on 
heavy  skirts,  a  corsage  outside  trimmed  with  silks  and 
ribbons — the  Italians  know  how  to  be  artistic — a  blue 
waist  underneath,  a  string  of  beautiful  corals  around 
her  neck,  and  gold  earrings  that  almost  reached  her 
shoulder.  This  little  vanity  was  excusable.  She  was 
dreadfully  poor,  and  cherished  the  fiction  that  as  long 
as  she  held  on  to  these  heirlooms  she  was  never  poor, 
and  yet,  she  would  never  sell  them.  She  had  an  ex- 
quisite Grecian  profile,  for  she  was  a  Greek  of  the 
Greeks  in  blood,  though  an  Italian  of  Italians  in  envir- 
onment, a  charming  olive  complexion,  large  lustrous 
black  eyes  and  her  hair  done  up  as  only  an  Italian 
woman  knows  how  to  do  it,  with  a  covering  in  white 
stiffened  with  starch  as  a  crowning  piece.  There  she 
stood  before  me,  a  splendid  specimen  of  Italian  peasant 
beauty.  Her  hands  were  horny  with  toil,  for  she  had 
been  working  in  the  fields  from  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  it  was  now  nine  o'clock  at  night.  She 
looked  at  me  earnestly  and  asked:  "Won't  you  please 
read  this  letter  from  my  husband  ?"  Now,  I  knew  that 
her  pastor  and  others  had  read  it  to  her  before,  but, 
poor  soul,  she  could  not  read  her  husband's  love  letter 
herself.  Eighty-five  per  cent  in  southern  Italy  and 
Sicily  at  that  time  could  neither  read  nor  write,  and  this 
is  where  the  Pope  has  dominated  soul  and    body  for 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  175 

hundreds  of  years,  and  we  are  ready  to  say  to  his  holi- 
ness, "If  that  is  the  best  you  can  produce,  step  aside,  sir, 
and  give  us  a  chance.'*  Don't  wonder  that  the  woman 
wanted  to  hear  her  love  letter  more  than  once.  You  know 
how  you  are  when  you  get  a  love  letter;  you  are  not 
content  with  the  first  reading,  but  it  usually  goes  on  to 
the  thirtieth.  Now,  it  will  be  hard  for  me  to  give  you 
an  exact  translation  of  the  letter.  Our  English  language 
is  so  cold  and  unpoetic!  But  I  will  do  the  best  I  can. 
The  letter  began,  "Mia  Carissima  Maria."  I  cannot 
tell  you  how  beautiful  this  is  in  Italian,  but  the  best 
translation  I  can  give  is  this :  "My  precious  darling 
Mary."  That  is  not  so  bad  in  cold  English.  I  rather 
imagine  that  if  any  of  you  young  folks  got  a  letter  like 
that  you'd  think  somebody  was  hot  after  you.  Her  eyes 
filled  with  tears  as  I  continued  to  read  in  Italian:  "I 
wonder  how  you  are  getting  along."  "lo  ho  fame  per 
te  e  per  i  figli."  "I  have  hunger  for  thee  and  the  chil- 
dren." Poor  fellow !  He  was  homesick.  Did  you  ever 
get  homesick?  I  have  been  seasick,  but  that  is  nothing 
compared  to  homesickness. 

I  was  once  so  homesick  in  the  heart  of  the  Appen- 
nines  that  I  got  to  my  room,  closed  the  door  and  began 
to  talk  English  to  'myself.  I  once  told  that  story  in 
Philadelphia,  and  at  the  close  a  lady  missionary  came  to 
me  and  said :  "I  can  go  one  better  than  that.  I  was 
once  so  homesick  that  I  shut  myself  up  in  my  room  and 
cracked  English  jokes  to  myself." 


1 76  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Did  you  know  that  there  is  a  new  disease  in  this 
country  occasioned  by  i/nmigration  ?  It  is  called  "nos- 
talgia," and  is  from  the  Italian,  meaning  "homesick- 
ness." Doctors  cannot  cope  with  it;  the  poor  immi- 
grants are  dying  of  it  by  the  scores  in  America;  dying 
for  a  little  bit  of  love  from  their  American  brothers  and 
sisters.  God  help  them  to  "warm  up"  to  these  poor 
homesick  immigrants. 

"I  send  you  sixty  dollars.  It  is  all  I  have  saved. 
Keep  it  by  you.  I  will  send  you  some  more  as  soon 
as  I  can,  and  then  you  shall  come  to  this  blessed  coun- 
try. We  will  have  our  own  little  home  and  be  happy 
once  more.  Be  patient,  Mary;  I  am  praying  for  you. 
God  keep  you  till  we  meet  again." 

He  was  a  member  of  our  church,  and  so  was  she, 
both  of  them  earnest,  devoted  Christians.  Who  was 
this  man?  One  of  those  you  have  packed  into  box  cars 
and  sent  out  West  to  build  your  railroads ;  men  with  like 
passions  to  ourselves,  with  as  strong  affections  as  you 
husbands  have  for  your  wives  and  children,  and  yet  you 
call  them  Italian  "cattle"  and  Italian  "dirt."  But  God 
once  took  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  and  made  a  Dante  who 
struck  the  heart  of  poesy,  and  nations  listened  to  his 
song.  He  once  took  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  and  made  a 
Michael  Angelo,  one  of  the  biggest  men  God  ever  made. 
He  saw  an  angel  in  the  rough  hewn  marble ;  nobody  else 
saw  it,  but  he  said,  "I  will  make  it  fly  forth,"  and  out 
it  flew.     God  once  took  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  and  made 


7 he  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  177 

a  Raphael,  a  Tintoretto,  a  DaVinci,  a  Perugino,  a  Carlo 
Dolce,  an  Andrea  del  Sarto,  a  Botticelli,  a  Fra  Angelico, 
who  painted  on  his  knees  and  got  visions  from  heaven 
of  the  angels,  and  these  with  their  divinely  tipped 
brushes  touch  the  lifeless  canvas  and  lo !  they  live  today, 
and  will  continue  to  live,  while  thousands  go  to  see  these 
master  works  of  Italian  art. 

God  once  took  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  and  trans- 
muted it  and  made,  it  into  a  Galileo,  who  by  the  subtle 
waves  of  light  and  heat  which  proceed  from  the  planets, 
guessed  the  velocity  of  their  varied  march.  He  once 
took  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  and  made  a  Savonarola,  he- 
roic old  monk;  if  he  had  been  living  today,  methinks 
he  would  have  been  a  Methodist  exhorter,  turning  his 
own  beloved  people  of  Florence  to  righteousness.  God 
once  made  a  piece  of  Italian  dirt  into  a  Copernicus,  who 
transformed  astrology  into  astronomy.  With  another 
piece  of  Italian  dirt  He  made  a  Garibaldi,  and  made  him 
on  the  Fourth  of  July,  too,  the  liberator  of  his  country, 
born  on  the  birthday  of  our  American  independence. 
Think  of  it !  And  now  the  Italian  government  has  made 
the  Fourth  of  July  a  national  holiday  and  America  and 
Italy  join  hands  together  to  celebrate  the  "Glorious 
Fourth."  God  once  made  from  Italian  dirt  a  man 
named  Christopher  Columbus,  who  sailed  the  unknown 
seas  and  gave  you  and  me  the  land  we  call  our  own. 
Shame  on  you,  if  you  go  back  on  a  "Dago"  after  that. 
Then  Portugal  wanted  to  get  a  slice  from  the  new  coun- 


1 78  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

try,  and  she  looked  for  another  discoverer,  and  found 
him  in  Amerigo  Vespuccius. 

By  the  way,  you  call  yourselves  Americans,  do  you 
not?  And  you  are  proud  of  it?  Where  did  you  get 
your  name  ?  From  an  Italian.  So  you  are  all  ''Dagos" 
in  name  at  least.  Then  England  could  not  rest  without 
extending  her  territory,  and  she  looked  for  another  dis- 
coverer, and  none  intrepid  enough  were  found  in  merry 
old  England,  and  so  she  crossed  the  sea  to  Venice  and 
found  an  Italian  called  John  Cabot.  So,  you  see,  it 
took  three  Italians  to  give  us  the  country  we  call  our 
own.  Again  I  say,  shame  on  you  if  you  despise  this 
little  Italian  immigrant. 

When  you  are  inclined  to  be  harsh  with  these 
Italians,  don't  forget  it  was  an  Italian  who  gave  you 
the  barometer;  don't  forget  it  was  an  Italian  who  gave 
you  the  timepiece.  An  Italian  discovered  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  electrical  science  and  put  his  name  to  the  dis- 
covery— Galvani — galvanism.  An  Italian  gave  you 
telegraphy,  and  I  have  seen  the  house  on  Lake  Como 
where  Professor  Morse  visited  Alexander  Volta,  but  all 
poor  Volta  got  was  his  name  applied  to  the  current  of 
electricity  which  drives  your  street  car,  illuminates 
your  home  and  streets.  It  was  an  Italian  who  gave  us 
the  telephone,  and  if  you  do  not  believe  it,  look  up  the 
record  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  United  States,  ac- 
cording Meucci  the  right  to  the  discovery  of  the  inven- 
tion,    You  may  go  to  Staten  Inland  today  and  see  the 


The  Italians  and  Other  Immigrants  1 79 

house  where  he  and  his  fellow-exile,  Garibaldi,  made 
soap  and  candles  for  a  living,  and  that  house  is  now 
covered  with  a  xnagnificent  mausoleum,  surrounded  by 
twenty-six  massive  columns. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  I  talked  with  an  old  man  who 
made  the  first  telephonic  instrument  for  Meucci.  And, 
of  course,  you  will  not  forget  that  it  was  an  Italian  who 
crossed  the  sea  a  few  years  ago  and  gave  us  a  new  dis- 
covery as  he  cried,  *'I  will  girdle  the  globe  without 
wires,"  and  his  name  was  Marconi.  Until  Peary  and 
Cook  quarreled,  it  was  an  Italian  who  planted  the  Ital- 
ian flag  farther  north  than  any  other  man,  in  the  interest 
of  science,  and  he  has  never  been  questioned  for  his  in- 
tegrity. His  name  is  the  Duke  of  Abruzzi,  the  cousin 
of  the  present  King  of  Italy. 

What  a  debt  we  owe  to  this  Italian.  Shall  we  not 
pay  it,  and  demonstrate  we  have  caught  the  spirit  of  our 
Christ?  For  He  once  said  of  an  Italian,  "I  have  not 
found  such  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,"  and  it  was  an 
Italian  who  stood  on  Calvary's  Mount  and  looked  and 
Hved  and  believed,  as  he  exclaimed,  "Truly,  this  was  the 
Son  of  God."  And  when  God  had  determined  that  the 
Gospel  should  go  to  the  Gentile  world,  it  was  an  Italian 
who  was  first  selected  as  the  first  fruit  of  the  Gospel, 
Cornelius,  a  captain  of  an  Italian  band.  Evidently,  the 
Master  believed  in  the  Italian.  May  we  catch  His  spirit 
and  learn  His  way,  and  thus  prove  that  we  have  in  real- 
ity caught  His  spirit. 


THE  BITTER  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN. 

DR.   HENRY  J.   COKER^  D.  D. 

Claudian  sang  of  decadent  Rome,  *'The  Harvest 
of  men  is  past."  He  could  have  cried  with  similar  em- 
phasis of  all  other  decadent  peoples.  What  wrecks! 
What  havoc  is  made,  when  time  is  given  to  reap  the 
harvest  of  a  nation^s  doings !  What  lessons  may  be  pro- 
filed therefrom!  Assyria,  Chaldea,  Babylonia,  Egypt, 
Greece,  and  of  more  modern  people. 

Greece,  resplendent  Greece!  what  ninety  years  of 
national  career  can  be  equal  to  hers?  Yet  glorious  as 
it  was  we  readily  learn  that  Glory  of  War,  Art  of 
Brush,  Shaping  of  Sculptor's  Chisel  are  no  guaranty  of 
long  life — for  Beauty  without  purity,  Art  without  re- 
ligion, Eloquence  without  conscience,  Intellect  without 
holiness,  Insight  without  love,  are  blossoms  whose  roots 
are  in  the  corruption  of  the  grave. 

And  of  Rome  it  may  be  said,  ''that  as  long  as  she 
was  pure  and  simple  in  her  home-life,  so  long  as  her 
legislators  came  from  the  hardy  self-denial  of  the  farm, 
so  long  as  she  was  the  Rome  of  the  Fabii,  the  Cincin- 
natti  and  the  Elder  Scipios,  so  long  she  prospered  until 


The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children  i8i 

none  could  withstand  her.  But  when  the  old  iron  disci- 
pHne  yielded  to  effeminate  luxury  and  gilded  pollution, 
when  she  lost  her  love  of  honor  in  man  and  purity  in 
woman,  when  her  youth  grew  debased,  enervated 
and  false,  when  her  business  became  a  flagrant 
imposture  and  her  religion  a  dishonest  sham, 
when,  lastly,  her  literature  became  a  seething 
scum  of  abomination,  such  as  degrades  the  very 
conception  of  humanity — then  we  know  how  in  long, 
slow  agony,  the  charnel  house  of  her  dominion  crumbled, 
until  Rome,  whom  mightiest  nations  curtsied  to,  like  a 
forlorn  and  desperate  castaway,  did  shameful  execution 
on  herself." 

And  the  Israelitish  nation,  God's  care  and  pledge 
to  the  world,  proving  recreant  to  his  love  and  fatherly 
interest ;  and  the  Christl  of  God,  could  not  keep  his  tears, 
but  out  of  sheer  disappointment  and  weariness  of  wait- 
ing and  of  love  unrequited,  cried,  "Oh,  Jerusalem,  Jeru- 
salem! How  oft  would  I  have  gathered  Thee,  as  a  Hen 
gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings — but  ye  would 
not,  behold  now  is  your  house  left  unto  you  desolate.'* 

And  forty  years  later  the  red  ashes  of  a  desecrated 
temple  were  slacked  in  the  blood  of  her  best  defenders. 

What  wreckage  along  every  shore  and  waste  of 
every  energy!  What  was  the  cause  of  it  all?  Answer: 
"The  cry  of  sin-cursed,  oppressed  manhood,  woman- 
hood and  childhood."  No  man  can  be  great  and  influ- 
ential who  does  not  love  the  little  child.     Christ  set  his 


1 82  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

signet  to  this  great  truth.  No  nation  is  great,  nor  can 
long  endure  whose  children  are  not  loved,  nourished  and 
properly  reared. 

What  now  is  this  nation,  of  ours?  Is  it  an  excep- 
tion? Is  it  more  a  child  of  God  than  the  Jews?  Will 
He  care  for  and  save  us  from  the  same  characterization 
as  we  have  just  made  of  other  peoples?  Can  He  save 
us,  if  He  would,  with  sin  upon  us,  or  if  we  oppress  the 
widow  and  orphan  in  our  eagerness  to  accumulate 
wealth?  When  our  wealth  accumulates,  will  it  save  us, 
if  our  men  decay?  Nay!  And  of  America  it  can  be  said 
even  today  that  "we  are  grinding  the  seed  corn"  when 
we  make  slaves  of  our  children. 

Do  you  hear  the  children  weeping,  oh!  my  brothers? 

Ere  their  sorrow  comes  with  years, 
They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mothers 

And  that  cannot  dry  their  tears.  , 
They  are  working  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free." 
"Our  blood  splashes  upward,  oh !  Gold  Heaper, 

And  your  purple  shows  your  path; 
But  the  child's  sob  in  the  darkness  curses  deeper, 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath." 

Is  it:  true  that  we  are  exacting  a  man's  task  from  a 
child?  We,  Americans!  We,  who  after  years  of  suffer- 
ing fought  and  won  our  independence!    We,  who  fought 


The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children  1 83 

and  won  and  freed  the  black  man!  We  who  in  the 
beginning  of  our  Nation's  history  sought  the  guidance 
and  protection  and  help  of  Him  who  said,  "Suffer  the 
little  children  to  come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven !"  We,  who  boast  of  our  enlightenment 
and  whose  chiefest  harbor  is  impressively  decorated  with 
a  shaft  having  for  its  motto,  "Liberty  enlightening  the 
World,"  yet  under  whose  shadow  is  perpetrated  some 
of  the  worst  forms  of  slavery;  where  we  send  the  light 
to  others  and  seek  to  teach  others  shall  we  not  cleanse 
ourselves?  We,  who  lift  the  loads  from  others,  shall 
we  not  relieve  the  oppressed?  We,  who  preach  liberty 
to  the  captives,  shall  we  enslave  little  children? 

Oh,  America! — America  of  Bunker  Hill — America 
of  Appomatox,  America  of  San  Juan — Libtity  loving 
country  of  Washington  and  Lincoln — shall  we  not  let 
the  oppressed  go  free  ?  "As  He  died  to\  make  men  holy, 
let  us  *live'  to  make  men  free."    Yet  what  are  the  facts : 

"A  little  fellow  who  had  been  crushed  in  a  mill, 
when  tcld  he  could  not  Hve  long,  cried  out:  "Oh!  I 
want  to  play  some  first !'  " 

Statistics  are  hard  to  secure.  Two  millions,  five 
hundred  thousand  children  under  16  years  of  age  are 
empolyed  at  different  tasks  in  our  fair  land.  Twenty- 
five  regiments  of  one  thousand  each  in  coal  mines  alone. 
One  hundred  thousand  in  textile  factories. 

When  journeying  up  the  Ohio  River  on  a  train  I 
sat  by  a  commercial  traveler  who  sold  cotton  goods.    I 


184  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

asked  concerning  the  truthfulness  or  otherwise  of  the 
use  of  children  in  the  cotton  mills  of  the  South  and 
he  assured  me  as  a  man,  that  he  had  seen  children  as 
young  as  six  years  and  four  years  even  who  were  em- 
ployed in  the  spindle  rooms  eight  and  ten  hours 
a  day.  Indeed,  he  said  they  had  small  machin- 
ery for  small  children.  In  a  book  of  recent 
date  we  read  of  a  condition  in  the  New  England  fac- 
tories where  children  of  the  tender  age  tramp  cloth  in 
bleach  vats  naked  as  the  day  they  were  born,  until 
their  bodies  are  white  as  lepers.  A  traveler  in  a  mid- 
night underground  train  in  ISTew  York  City  found  a  boy 
of  twelve  years,  going  to  deliver  a  message  where  no 
human  eye  or  ear  should  venture,  in  the  red  light  dis- 
trict. Seven  thousand,  five  hundred  in  glass  factories; 
twelve  thousand  in  tobacco  factories,  receiving  eight 
cents  for  one  hundred  stogies,  working  fourteen  to  six- 
teen hours  a  day ;  ten  thousand  in  saw  mills ;  seven  thous- 
and in  foundries ;  forty-two  thousand  in  messenger  serv- 
ice; one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  thousand  in  various 
forms  of  house  work.  Besides  the  newsboys,  the  thous- 
ands in  packing  houses:  shirt  and  collar  factories,  re- 
ceiving, according  to  the  Central  Christian  Advocate, 
one  and  one-half  cents  for  a  stock  collar  which  sells  for 
fifty  cents ;  making  men's  neckties,  four  cents  each ;  arti- 
ficial flowers,  one  cent  a  dozen.  Four  children  and  their 
mother  earning  only  sixty  cents  a  day,  making  violets. 
Spargo  tells  of  a  four-year-old    helping    her    mother, 


The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children  185 

making  artificial  flowers  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  The 
mother  saying  to  the  child,  ''Don't  sleep!  Don't  sleep! 
Just  a  few  more."  i 

A  doctor  in  a  Southern  mill  says  that  the  yearly  toll 
is  one  hundred  fingers  of  very  small  children.  Awful! 
you  say;  can  God  bless  a  nation  that  has  this 
guilt  upon  it?  Simply  cannot  even  if  he  desired  so  to  do. 
It  is  against  the  constitutionality  of  man  and  God's 
Kingdom.  "If  you  make  a  man  too  soon  you  make  a 
small  man." 

Oh!  In  our  efforts  to  conserve  forests  and  other 
indigenous  resources  of  our  Nation,  let  us  not  forget  to 
conserve  God's  choicest  fruitage,  the  human  soul.  More 
than  iron,  more  than  tree,  more  than  coal  or  zinc,  or 
copper,  silver,  gold  or  diamond  or  even  radium,  He 
loves  the  little  ones  and  His  will  must  ultimately  prevail. 

Joseph  L.  Bristow  says,  "The  Government  is  never 
better  or  worse  than  the  opinion  of  the  people,"  and 
the  character  of  the  people  is  never  better  or  worse  than 
the  way  the  child  is  reared.  And  as  we  look  at  this 
quarter  of  a  million  children  under  the  lash  of  the  task 
master  of  the  sweat  shop  or  factory,  what  kind  of  citi- 
zens may  we  expect?  Thorough  going,  intelligent,  loyal 
or  reactionary,  socialistic,  even  anarchistic?  At  any 
rate  whatever  they  be  the  country  will  be.  And  it  makes 
it  a  little  more  dangerous  that  these  children  are  largely 
the  children  of  foreign  born  peoples.  Well  may  Edwin 
Markham  sing: 


1 86  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

"O,  Masters,  Lords,  and  rulers  in  the  lands. 

Is  this  the  handiwork  you  give  to  God, 

This  monstrous  thing,  distorted  and  soul  quenched? 

How  will  you  ever  straighten  out  this  shape 

Touch  it  again  with  immortality,  give  back  the  upward 

looking  and  the  light; 
Make  right  the  immemorial  infamies, 
Perfidious  wrongs,  immedicable  woes? 
Oh,  Masters,  Lords,  and  Rulers  of  the  Lands! 
How  will  the  future  reckon  with  this  man? 
How  answer  his  brute  question  in  that  hour 
When  whirlwinds  of  rebellion  shake  the  world? 
How  will  it  be  with  kingdoms  and  with  kings. 
With  those  who  shaped  him  to  the  thing  he  is. 
When  this  dumb  terror  shall  reply  to  God 
After  the  silence  of  the  centuries?" 

Rather  may  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the  words 
of  Webster  on  Bunker  Hill  find  an  echo  in  every  hearer's 
heart: 

"That  motionless  shaft  will  be  the  most  powerful 
of  speakers.  Its  speech  will  be  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  It  will  speak  of  patriotism  and  courage.  It 
will  speak  of  moral  improvement  and  elevation  of  man- 
kind. Decrepit  age  leaning  against  its  base  and  ingen- 
uous youth  gathering  around  it,  will  speak  to  each 
other  of  the  glorious  event  with  which  it  is  connected 
and  exclaim,  Thank  God!    I  also  am  an  American!'" 


The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children  187 

These  little  ones  are  easily  won  to  a  right  path, 
easily  taught  and  moulded  for  God  and  righteousness. 
Here  is  the  place  for  work,  patient,  generous  and  Christ- 
like sympathy  and  love. 

Here  at  this  point,  with  the  care  of  a  shepherd,  we 
can  make  Christian  citizens  and  then  make  quickly  a 
Christian  country.  A  little  fellow  seeing  Miss  Horton 
(that  matchless  deaconness  so  long  connected  with  Hal- 
stead  Street,  Chicago),  wanted  to  go  with  her  when  on 
one  of  her  missions  of  love.  She  tried  to  dissuade  him, 
told  him  to  go  home  and  get  his  face  washed.  He  went, 
but  he  was  soon  back,  with  the  high  places  of  his  face 
shining,  and  crying,  "Now,  I  vill  go  mid  you.  Miss 
Horton;  now,  I  vill  do  mid  you."  But  she  said,  "You 
cannot  go  with  me.  I  am  going  up  five  flights  of  stairs 
to  see  a  sick  man  and  you  cannot  climb  so  many  steps." 
"I  vill  go  mid  you  the  stairs  oop,  Miss  Horton,"  he 
exclaimed,  and  he  went. 

So  the  multitudes  that  are  adrift,  cruelly  ignorant 
and  neglected,  imposed  upon  and  oppressed,  these  in 
flocks  will  go  with  us  "the  stairs  up"  if  we  only  give 
them  a  chance. 


HOW  ARE  WE  MEETING  THIS  MIGHTY  CHAL- 
LENGE—FIRST, "AMONG  THE  JEWS/' 

DR.    LOUIS    M.    POTTS. 

Would  to  God  that  I  could  use  fifteen  min- 
utes, to  tell  you  of  accomplishments.  The  truth 
compels  me  to  say  that,  were  I  tabulating  the  work  of 
the  church  for  the  salvation  of  the  Jew,  it  would  re- 
quire less  than  five  minutes,  for  I  answer  the  question 
as  to  what  we  have  done  for  the  Jew,  as  a  church,  with 
the  remark  that  we  have  done  nothing.  It  is  not  the 
fault  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  It  has  done  the 
best  it  could  with  what  you  have  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  its  officers,  and  what  I  say  is  not  criticism  at  all. 
It  is  but  another  challenge  to  the  church,  to  include 
within  its  sphere  of  interest  this  people. 

I  ask  you  this  question:  "What  people  were  first 
in  the  mind  of  Christ,"  and  you  answer,  "The  Jews." 
I  ask,  "What  people  are  last  in  the  mind  of  the  church?" 
and  you  answer,  "The  Jews,"  and  the  text  for  my  brief 
survey  this  afternoon  is  this :  That  the  people  who  were 
first  in  the  mind  of  the  Master  are  last  in  the  mind  of 
the  Master's  church,  and  this,  my  brethren,  ought  not 
to  be. 


What  are  We  Doing  for  the  Jews  189 

I  am  not  unfamiliar  with  the  work  of  certain  or- 
ganizations in  the  Ghettos  of  the  cities.  I  have  walked 
the  streets  of  every  principal  city,  I  think,  of  this  land. 
I  have  not  time  to  go  into  details,  but  you  must  take 
my  word  for  it;  I  speak  from  the  book.  I  have  heard 
figures  as  to  results  among  the  Jews  in  various  lands. 
I  think  I  state  the  case  conservatively  when  I  say  that 
in  the  last  century,  the  Christian  church  has  received 
and  baptized  but  12,400  Jewish  souls.  That  is  a  very 
small  average.  About  300  Jews,  yearly,  are  received  into 
Christian  churches.  But  have  you  thought  of  my  state- 
ment this  morning?  The  Jew  is  increasing  in  numbers. 
There  is  no  race  suicide  among  the  orthodox  Jews; 
there  is  a  little  among  the  reformed  Jews.  They  are 
learning  bad  habits  from  you,  folks;  but  the  orthodox 
Jew  is  prolific  and  there  are  children  in  the  homes.  It 
will  take  10,000  years  to  touch  the  outer  rim  of  the 
proposition  at  the  present  rate.  The  largest  Jewish  city 
that  ever  was  in  the  world,  is  New  York  City.  A  dear 
old  lady,  at  the  close  of  this  moming^s  session,  said  she 
believed  in  the  prophecies,  that  some  day  the  Jews  were 
to  build  up  a  great  commonwealth  in  Palestine  and  the 
dear  old  lady  was  sincere,  but  the  fact  is,  where  one 
Jew  goes  to  Palestine,  ninety -nine  come  to  our  shores. 
Not  in  all  the  history  of  Jerusalem,  two  thousand  years 
or  more,  did  that  city  have  one-fourth  as  many  Jews  as 
now  live  in  New  York  City.  We  have  one  million  Jews 
in  New  York  City,  and  sad  to  state,  the  Jew  is  crowding 


I  go  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

out  the  Christian  church.  There  are  more  Jewish  con- 
gregations in  New  York  City  than  Christian  churches. 
How  long  will  it  take,  at  the  present  rate,  to  influence 
the  Jew  toward  Christ?  Two  years  ago  there  were 
803  Jewish  congregations  in  New  York  City.  They  con- 
trol the  wholesale  whiskey  trade,  and  control  the  largest 
single  industry  in  NJew  York  City,  the  clothing  trade. 
They  control  the  amusement  problem  in  the  city  and  na- 
tion, and  I  say,  while  I  refrain  from  criticism,  that  the 
world  will  indict  the  modern  Jew  for  the  kind  of  stuff 
we  are  getting  from  the  American  stage,  for  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  houses  of  amusement  are  controlled  by  Jew- 
ish people.  Half  of  the  newspapers  are  edited  by  Jewish 
men.  New  York  is  becoming  a  Jewish  city.  The  Jew  is 
not  going  to  Palestine ;  he  is  coming  to  New  York  City. 
Today  more  Jews  live  in  Chicago  than  in  all  Palestine. 
You  will  get  something  of  an  idea  of  the  Jewish  problem 
as  you  digest  these  figures.  What  are  we  going  to  do 
with  them?  The  Jew  is  an  important  factor  in  our  city 
problem.  The  problem  of  Jewish  evangelization  is  a 
most  complex  one,  for  three  reasons:  First.  We  do 
not  understand  the  Jew.  We  think  we  know  the  Jew 
of  the  old  Testament,  but  very  imperfectly.  Why,  the 
Reformed  Jew  does  not  believe  in  the  Mosiac  law,  at 
all.  He  does  not  believe  in  the  Messiah.  He  never  has 
come;  never  will  come.  The  orthodox  Jew  is  the  modern 
Pharisee.  It  is  hard  to  believe  a  story,  I  heard  from  a 
good  lady.    It  denotes  such  density  it  is  almost  incredible 


What  are  We  Doing  for  the  Jews  igi 

that  any  people  working  among  Jews  could  be  guilty  of 
such  conduct.  In  a  settlement  house  in  Chicago,  on  a 
certain  occasion  they  were  to  have  a  social  hour.  They 
were  going  to  give  the  Jewish  lads  and  lassies  a  treat. 
After  the  program,  refreshments  came.  The  bread  was 
cut  diagonal,  and  the  sandwiches  tied  with  blue  ribbon 
and  everything  lovely;  but  as  soon  as  the  sandwiches 
were  passed  the  Jewish  lads  began  to  throw  them  at 
those  in  charge,  and  she  wondered  why.  I  asked,  ''What 
did  you  place  between  the  two  pieces  of  bread?"  'The 
best  deviled  ham  I  could  find." 

We  do  not  understand  the  Jew,  and  I  venture  to 
say  that  the  average  street  preaching,  on  the  corner,  in 
Jewish  Ghettos,  while  well  meant,  instead  of  winning 
the  Jew,  drives  him  away  from  the  Christ. 

The  other  part  of  the  problem  is  this :  We  do  not 
understand  the  Jew;  the  Jew  does  not  understand  us. 
When  I  came  to  feel  that  Judaism  was  but  half  of  the 
Revelation,  and  that  I  had  to  look  somewhere  else  for 
the  other  half,  I  said  to  myself,  lad  that  I  was — 'T  cannot 
be  a  Jew,  hence  I  am  a  Gentile."  Had  anybody  asked 
in  those  days,  was  I  a  Christian,  "Why,  of  course,  I  am 
a  Gentile,"  would  have  been  the  answer.  Gentile  and 
Christian  are  synonymous  in  the  mind  of  the  Jew.  He 
does  not  know  the  difference;  that  is  the  trouble.  That 
is  why  his  hatred  which  was  largely  against  the  law,  has 
been  turned  against  the  church. 

The  trouble  is  this,  when  the  Jew  leaves  his  faith 


192  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

he  is  socially  ostracised.  It  is  a  matter  of  loss  of  kin 
and  home  and  all  that.  When  I  think  of  it  in  this  con- 
nection, I  marvel  that  300  Jews  annually  leave  their  faith 
for  Christianity. 

The  Jew  is  more  potent  for  good  or  evil  than  anj 
other  people.  Read  the  stories  of  the  city  and  you  will 
agree  with  me.  He  is  acquisitive,  he  is  "on  his  toes'*  all 
the  while.  He  is  in  the  forefront.  There  are  two 
American  institutions  the  Jew  threatens,  not  because  he 
is  un-American,  but  he  thinks  he  must  protect  himself 
and  his  children  from  assimilation.  The  first  is  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  The  Reform  Jew  has  no  day  of 
rest.  He  is  commercialism  incarnate.  His  business 
days  are  seven  days  a  week  and  as  many  hours  a  day 
as  he  is  awake,  and  I  am  told  that  he  dreams  about  his 
business.  It  is  in  his  blood.  It  is  a  part  of  him.  Can 
a  man  divorce  himself  from  his  family?  His  name  and 
his  blood  are  intermixed  with  the  family  idea.  The  Jew 
has  taken  up  the  idea  of  commerce.  It  is  a  part  of  his 
blood.  The  Sabbath  day  is  not  in  his  mind  and  he  resists 
any  attempt  upon  the  part  of  any  people  to  set  aside, 
legally,  a  day  of  rest.  He  says,  this  is  not  a  Christian 
nation;  but  a  nation  for  the  free,  and  he  resists  any  at- 
tempt to  compel  observation  of  a  day  of  rest. 

The  other  touches  the  American  school.  Two  years 
ago  the  Jew  was  so  strong  in  New  York  City  that  he 
was  able  to  keep  the  name  of  Christ  out  of  the  Christ- 
mas exercises  at  that  time.    The  list  of  teachers  in  cer- 


What  are  We  Doin^  for  the  Jews  193 

tain  sections  of  the  city  reads  like  a  Jewish  directory. 

Now,  the  Jew  is  going  to  protect  himself.  He  is 
powerful,  strong,  never  passive;  and  if  we  do  not  touch 
his  life  with  the  higher  love  of  the  Qiristian  Gospel, 
materialistic  as  he  is,  and  powerful  as  he  is,  he  will 
stamp  the  materialism  of  his  nature  and  life  upon  these 
institutions. 

Aside  from  all  this ;  the  Qiristian  church  owes  much 
to  the  Jew.  Dr.  Wright,  in  his  splendid  peroration, 
mentioned  such  a  list  of  characters  as  would  charm  any- 
one into  loving  the  Italians;  but  I  will  take  every  name 
he  mentioned,  and  I  will  put  beside  them  all,  one  name; 
and  from  the  standard  of  achievement,  and  what  the 
world  has  derived,  will  outmatch  every  one  of  them — 
and  that  one  name  is  Moses;  for  without  the  inspiration 
of  life  which  has  come  to  the  world  through  the  laws 
given  unto  humanity  by  Moses,  there  would  be  lacking 
inspiration  for  the  achievements  presented  to  you. 

I  will  hastily  give  you  the  problem  of  Home  Mis- 
sionary work  as  touching  the  Jew.  The  Jew  is  a  part  of 
the  great  city.  We  shall  fail  utterly  to  reach  him,  unless 
we  shall  be  able  to  stamp  upon  the  city  the  impression 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Jew  is  influenced  by  the  things 
which  are  large  and  imposing.  I  have  seen  a  little 
mission,  in  a  crowded  street,  cheap  in  every  respect.  The 
Jew  says,  ''What  about  the  Christ?  Is  this  his  head- 
quarters?" You  have  on  your  boulevards  the  spires  of 
churches  for  those  who  worship  Him,  and  when  you 
want  to  reach  His  descendants,  if  you  please,  those  of 
kindred  blood  with  the  Saviour,  you  want  to  reach  them 


194  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

in  a  2x4  institution.  They  are  not  to  be  reached  in  that 
way.    It  is  a  pity  that  Christianity  is  so  represented. 

The  third  element  is  this:  You  know  we  have 
given  the  Jew  up  as  hopeless.  You  say — it  does  not 
matter;  he  is  either  to  be  saved  by  the  fact  he  is  of  tne 
Chosen  People  or  he  is  to  be  saved  in  some  way.  You 
do  not  trouble  yourself  about  him  at  all,  but  he  will  be 
lost  unless  we  touch  him.  You  say — there  are  some  Jew- 
ish converts  and  they  may  touch  the  other  Jewish  life. 
The  fact  is,  you  must  not  depend  upon  the  average  Jew- 
ish convert.  In  the  address  by  Dr.  Mitchell,  we  were 
told  eloquently  about  Jesus  viewing  the  city.  What 
city?  Jerusalem,  a  Jewish  city,  of  the  Jewish  people. 
The  first  great  missionary  hungered  for  the  salvation  of 
his  kinfolk.  Shall  the  church  live  without  a  throbbing 
of  heart  for  those  people?  God  forbid!  I  here  want  to 
pledge  with  you  my  life,  my  influence,  for  the  ushering 
in  of  the  day  when  the  yearning  of  the  Christ  and  the 
hungering  of  St.  Paul  shall  be  mightily  filled  in  the  Chris- 
tian church,  yea,  within  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Dr.  Coker.  I  hope  we  will  listen  to  this  appeal 
with  our  hearts.  This  Bible  is  a  Jewish  book.  There 
is  not  a  character  in  it  of  note  that  is  not  a  Jew.  Our 
religion  is  a  Jewish  religion,  born  in  the  heart  of  the 
Jewish  people,  and  we  ought  to  pray  that  they  may  be 
brought  within  the  fold.  Brother  Thomas  will  tell  us 
what  we  are  doing  for  the  black  people.  We  ought  to 
be  doing  something  for  them  also,  in  the  name  of  our 
Lord,  who  loves  all  men,  everywhere. 


AMONG  THE  BLACK  MEN. 

REV.  I.  L.  THOMAS^  D.  D. 

Brothers  and  Sisters:  American  Methodism 
has  a  misison  to  the  colored  people  of  this  country.  In 
Barbara  Heck's  stirring  story  of  Philip  Embry,  preach- 
ing the  gospel  in  New  York,  his  congregation  numbered 
five,  and  one  was  a  colored  woman.  When  Bishop 
Asbury,  having  so  many  calls  that  he  might  preach  to 
the  people,  found  that  he  could  not  fill  them  all,  there 
was  a  colored  local  minister,  known  as  Black  Harry, 
whom  the  Bishop  would  send.  The  crowd  expected  to 
hear  the  Bishop  preach.  Those  who  failed  to  get  in  the 
meeting  house,  went  away  declaring  "the  Bishop 
preached  a  wonderful  sermon." 

The  church  is  facing  the  great  challenge  which 
comes  from  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  it  is  a  question 
as  to  what  the  church  is  able  to  do,  toward  helping  to 
gather  in  the  black  people  of  the  republic.  Surveying 
that  situation,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  a  few  things: 

The  300,000  colored  members  of  the  Methodist- 
Episcopal  church  are  proud  of  their  relation  to  this 
great  church  that  God  has  sent  to  help  to  lift  them  up, 
and  now  what  is  the  church  doing,  to  draw  the  colored 


196  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

people,  millions  of  them  in  this  republic,  away  from  the 
powers  of  darkness? 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  helping  to  give  the  colored 
people  of  the  country  a  Christian  education.  Thank 
God  for  the  great  work  that  has  been  done  through  the 
Freedmen's  Aid  Society.  Twenty-four  institutions  of 
learning  are  dotted  over  the  south  land,  where  the  church 
has  been  operating,  helping  to  give  these  people  a  Chris- 
tian education,  and  there  have  gone  forward  from  these 
institutions  more  than  13,000  graduates,  scattering  the 
light  among  their  people,  and  to  the  praise  of  God  and 
the  training  of  this  church,  not  one  of  those  13,000 
graduates  has  ever  been  arrested  or  charged  with  any 
crime  for  which  they  ought  to  be  punished. 

Again,  I  would  say  the  church  is  helping  to  meet 
this  challenge  by  helping  them  join  the  band  that  has 
been  united,  declaring  the  saloon  must  go.  In  the  south- 
land country  where  gigantic  efforts  have  been  made  that 
the  saloon  be  swept  out,  no  colored  members  of  any 
church  have  been  as  loyal  to  the  temperance  movement 
as  the  black  people  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 

Again,  I  would  say,  the  church  is  helping  my  people 
to  have  an  exemplary  ministry.  To  give  you  an  idea,  in 
Forsythe,  Arkansas,  where  there  was  a  convention  of 
colored  people,  the  agent  of  the  railroad  said  he  had 
received  a  great  number  of  packages  of  whiskey  for 
members  of  the  convention.  The  people  were  opposed 
to  the  coming  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church;  but 


Among'  the  Black  Men  197 

when  our  conference  was  held  there,  the  railroad  agent 
said  he  had  not  received  any  express  package  of  whiskey 
for  any  member.  Because  of  this  uplift  we  have  a 
splendid  Methodist  Episcopal  church  today. 

The  church  is  answering  this  challenge  by  helping 
the  girls,  too,  of  my  race.  Thank  God  for  the  noble 
army  of  women,  in  the  Women's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety. They  have  gone  into  the  south  and  established 
seventeen  schools,  touching  the  inner  life  of  my  people. 
Girls  from  one- room  cabins.  One,  I  remember  particu- 
larly, came  from  a  large  log  building,  capable  of  a  divi- 
sion into  four  rooms.  She  said  to  her  father,  let's  par- 
tition off  two  bed  rooms,  and  two  other  rooms.  He  said 
"What  does  this  mean,  daughter."  Together  they 
worked,  she  pasted  paper  over  the  logs,  and  when  it  was 
done,  the  father  and  mother,  with  the  rest  of  the  family, 
sat  down,  tears  flowing  down  their  cheeks,  and  said, 
"Where  did  you  get  such  ideas?  God  bless  the  folks 
who  gave  them  to  you!"  The  girl  answered,  "In  Fair- 
home,  Atlanta,  Georgia."  The  church  is  helping  us 
give  our  girls  that  conception  of  home-making. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  helping  the  colored  member- 
ship to  rely  more  upon  itself  in  the  way  of  self-support. 
During  the  quadrennium  closing  1908,  the  Board  of  the 
Home  Missions  gave  our  people  for  missionary  purposes 
in  the  south  $182,000;  and  in  the  same  length  of  time 
the  colored  membership  put  back  in  the  treasury 
$143,000,  leaving  the  church  in  four  years  only  contrib- 


I  q8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

uting  $40,000  to  help  save  eight  milHon  people  in  this 
country  to  Jesus  Christ.  In  other  words,  the  church,  has 
given  us  on  an  average,  for  the  twenty  colored  con- 
ferences, a  little  less  than  $500  a  year,  so  you  see  after 
all  we  are  not  getting  much. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  helping  the  race  make  good 
citizens.  A  bishop  who  came,  years  ago,  as  editor  of 
the  Christian  Advocate,  in  Nashville,  to  a  conference  in 
Chicago,  said,  "You  are  giving  the  south  the  best  Speci- 
mens of  citizenship  of  any  of  the  churches  in  our  land." 

Again,  it  is  helping  them  believe  more  firmly  in  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  brotherhood  of  man.  Whilst  my 
skin  is  different  from  yours,  I  have  a  heart,  and  believe 
in  the  same  God,  as  my  father,  as  you  believe  in.  Of 
different  races,  we  believe  God  made  of  one  blood,  all 
mankind,  to  dwell  together  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Don't  be  afraid  of  my  people.  Some  folks  get  a 
little  nervous,  in  the  presence  of  black  men  and  women. 
They  won't  hurt  you.  Give  us  the  clasp  of  your  hand 
as  Jesus  Christ  touches  your  life,  and  you  will  inspire  us 
to  walk  with  Christ. 

In  the  last  place,  the  church  is  helping  us  to  have 
a  beautiful  vision  of  the  future  of  our  people.  We 
look  yonder,  to  see  the  sky  clearing,  as  the  children  of 
God,  of  all  races  are  uniting  for  victory,  to  bring  this 
world  to  Christ. 

My  closing  word  is,  we  are  grateful  for  the  men 
and  women  of  your  race  who  came  among  us  in  dark 


Amon^  the  Black  Men  iqq 

days,  and  many  laid  down  their  lives.  The  Reverend 
Geo.  Standing,  one  day  in  Atlanta  said,  "My  boy,  dying, 
requested,  'Let  the  boys  in  black,  for  whom  I  have  given 
my  life,  bear  me  to  my  resting  place.' ''  More  than  one 
hundred  colored  preachers  and  others  who  had  come 
under  the  influence  of  that  blessed  man,  looked  in  his 
face,  this  man  past  his  8oth  birthday,  and  dropped  their 
tears  upon  his  casket. 

Down  in  Waynesboro,  Georgia,  a  blessed  woman 
of  the  Women's  Home  Missionary  Society,  who  came 
down  in  early  days,  and  gave  her  life  for  my  people, 
when  she  died,  requested  to  be  buried  among  the  folks 
she  had  given  her  life  for.  The  colored  women  of 
Waynesboro  erected  a  monument  to  her  memory.  Every 
year  they  go  to  that  spot  and  say  to  the  Father  of  us 
all,  "We  shall  keep  her  grave  green,  and  tell  the  girls 
of  coming  generations  to  do  so;  she  was  our  friend." 

We  are  grateful  for  everything  done  for  us,  and  by 
and  by,  we  all  shall  report  to  Him,  white  man,  black 
man,  every  man  of  the  human  race.  We  shall  lay  our 
trophies  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  say,  "We  did  what  we 
could." 

(Dr.  Coker  briefly  introduced  Mrs.  Williams.) 


WOMANfS  WORK. 

MRS.    BELLA    L.    WILLIAMS,    NATIONAL    CORRESPONDING 
SECRETARY_,   WOMAn's   HOME  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY. 

Mr.  President:  I  sometimes  think,  we  are  not 
really  the  older  sister,  but  in  a  sense  the  mother  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  for  I  am  not  sure  whether,  if 
there  had  not  been  a  Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety, there  would  be  today  a  Board  of  Home  Missions. 
I  rather  think  it  was  the  literature  of  the  Woman's  So- 
ciety, and  the  information  brought  to  the  church,  that  at 
least  hastened  the  organization  of  the  Home  Board.  So 
we  feel  we  have  a  right  to  say  "Amen"  to  all  that  Dr. 
Coker  said.  We  ought  to  have  a  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  in  every  church  in  Methodism,  and  we 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  we  shall  have  it.  Such 
meetings  as  this  help  us,  because  our  pastors,  their  wives^ 
and  men  and  women  of  influence  in  the  church,  are  going 
to  feel  there  is  work  to  be  done  by  the  Home  Board  and 
by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society,  because 
there  is  so  much  we  can  do,  and  ought  to  do,  that  the 
church  expects  us  to  do,  that  the  Home  Board  cannot 
and  does  not  do.     I  think  it  true,  as  Dr.  Piatt  said  at  a 


Woman  s  Work  201 

meeting,  that  the  work  of  the  Home  Board  is  to  support 
the  pastors  in  their  fields,  to  help  in  building  schools, 
parsonages,  and  things  of  that  sort,  and  they  do  not  do 
what  we  are  doing  at  all,  which  is  work  for  women  and 
children,  particularly.  The  church  has  so  divided  the 
work  that  we  cannot  feel,  if  we  neglect  our  own,  there 
will  be  anybody  else  to  do  it.  It  is  important  that  every 
woman  feel  that  the  church  expects  us  to  occupy  a  cer- 
tain field  of  work  within  its  borders.  You  have  listened 
to  the  challenges  of  various  sorts,  and  I  have  been  think- 
ing they  were  not  challenges  of  the  men  upon  the  plat- 
form, nor  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  but  of  God  him- 
self, given  to  the  church,  for  its  response.  I  address 
my  remarks  to  the  point  of  how  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  is  meeting  those  challenges.  Our 
good  brother  who  just  spoke  gave  us  some  points.  We 
have  seventeen  schools  in  the  south  where  colored  girls 
are  taught.  Girls  come  to  us  from  cotton  and  rice  fields, 
without  ever  having  seen  a  table  spread,  or  used  a  fork 
or  knife,  without  proper  clothing,  perhaps  everything 
they  have  tied  up  in  a  handkerchief,  and  carried  in  their 
hands,  who  have  lived  in  a  house  of  but  one  room.  They 
come  asking  for  a  chance.  One  of  them,  as 
she  came  into  one  of  our  homes  and  saw  its  beauty, 
asked,  "Is  this  Heaven?"  She  responded  quickly  to  it 
We  all  love  beautiful  things,  and  we  teach  those  girls 
to  love  beauty  and  order,  to  be  economical,  to  make  their 
clothing  simply  and  well.    We  teach  them  all  the  details 


202  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

of  nice  housekeeping,  because  it  all  develops  char- 
acter. They  go  home  and  do  just  what  Brother 
Thomas  said  that  girl  did  making  better  homes  for  their 
own  families. 

There  are  things  the  church  through  our  society  is 
doing  for  the  colored  girls  that  Brother  Thomas  did  not 
refer  to — very  important  things,  too.  We  are  educating 
teachers  for  the  colored  schools  in  the  south.  In  many 
cities  of  the  south,  a  white  teacher  cannot  teach  in  a 
colored  school.  They  must  have  colored  teachers,  if 
any,  and  girls  not  educated  in  the  church  schools  estab- 
lished by  northern  churches,  are  poor  teachers  as  a  rule. 
We  are  happy  to  say  the  girls  trained  in  our  schools  take 
the  lead  in  the  examinations,  for  public  school  places. 

Another  very  important  thing  we  do  for  the  col- 
ored people  in  the  south,  is  to  train  a  lot  of  girls  for 
minister's  wives  (laughter).  I  don't  know  what  the 
young  men  in  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  schools  would 
do,  after  graduating  from  their  schools,  if  they  had  to  go 
back  to  the  cabins  to  get  wives.  They  come  to  our 
schools,  and  we  cannot  keep  them  away.  We  always 
have  a  supply  of  the  very  best  sort. 

Miss  Mitchell,  of  Atlanta,  one  of  our  teachers,  heard 
that  one  of  our  girl  graduates  married  a  graduate  from 
the  university  on  the  same  campus,  a  young  preacher. 
They  went  out  together,  to  do  the  work  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  among  the  colored  people  of  the  south. 
They  went  to  a  little  settlement.     They  had  one  room 


Woman  s  Work  203 

and  a  lean-to  kitchen.  They  invited  Miss  Mitchell  to 
visit.  Within  a  block,  she  knew  which  house  in  the 
street  was  the  parsonage,  because  it  was  clean  and  neat 
and  there  were  no  clothes  hanging  on  the  fence,  with 
white  curtains  at  the  windows.  They  could  not  keep 
her  over  night;  but  everything  showed  the  training  to 
habits  of  cleanliness,  industry  and  thrift.  After  two  or 
three  years,  there  was  another  invitation,  this  time  to 
a  village  of  some  importance  in  the  south.  They  had 
a  house  of  two  or  three  rooms.  They  had  a  little  one, 
and  the  cradle  and  child  were  all  in  white.  Everything 
was  neat.  Don't  you  think  it  is  an  object  lesson  to  the 
people  to  have  such  a  parsonage  to  go  to?  There  was  a 
room  the  guest  could  stay  in,  over  night. 

After  a  few  years,  she  visited  them  again,  in  a  city, 
in  a  two-story  house.  Everything  was  beautiful  and 
clean  inside  and  outside,  as  before.  The  man  was  a 
power  in  the  church,  and  the  woman  his  equal  in  that 
regard.  I  think  it  is  good  for  the  women  of  the  race, 
to  train  good,  consecrated,  capable,  minister's  wives. 

Sometimes  people  say,  "Why  don't  you  train  those 
girls  for  servants,  and  bring  them  north?"  Why,  we 
can't  afford  it.  It  costs  too  much,  in  the  first  place,  and 
they  would  not  come.  We  have  better  things  for  them 
to  do  than  bring  them  north.  We  can  do  our  own  work 
here  if  necessary.  We  want  them  there  for  salt  for 
their  own  race.    They  are  attached  to  their  homes,  as  we 


204  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

are.  They  don't  want  to  come  north.  So  much  for  the 
colored  people. 

The  white  people  in  the  mountain  regions  and  some- 
times in  the  lower  plains,  need  just  as  much  as  the  col- 
ored people.  We  have  schools  where  we  do  the  same  for 
them.  The  poor  white  people  are  more  helpless  than 
colored  people,  in  many  respects,  in  the  mountain 
region.  The  colored  girls  can  earn  money  and  often 
come  with  money  in  their  pockets.  The  white  girls  can- 
not. They  don't  know  how  to  do  anything  and  southern 
people  do  not  want  white  servants.  They  come  without 
money,  as  a  rule,  or  much  clothing,  with  nothing  behind 
them.  They  come  saying  simply,  "We  want  as  good  a 
chance  as  the  colored  girls." 

I  had  a  letter  recently  from  Arkansas,  the  third 
from  that  region,  asking  me  to  establish  a  training  school 
in  western  Arkansas,  in  domestic  science.  The  presiding 
elder  wrote,  **I  was  reared  near  your  school  in  North 
Carolina;  I  know  all  about  it.  I  have  seen  your  school 
at  Athens,  Tenn.,  and  Boaz,  Ala.  We  want  just  such  a 
school  here."  Those  people  need  us.  We  have  been 
asked  to  Alabama.  We  cannot  get  to  those  places  be- 
cause we  haven't  enough  money  now.  Those  girls  are 
being  made  into  missionaries,  into  deaconesses,  taking 
up  church  life  and  service  among  those  people. 

A  few  years  ago,  I  was  at  Ritter  home,  at  Athens, 
Tennessee.  It  was  a  rainy  Sunday.  The  girls  had 
been  out  in  the  morning.    They  met  in  the  sitting  room 


Woman  s  Work  205 

in  the  evening  for  worship.  After  they  were  through,  I 
said,  "Girls,  I  would  like  to  have  you  tell  me  what  your 
ideals  are  for  the  future?  What  are  you  going  to  do?" 
It  would  have  been  very  interesting  if  you  could  have 
heard  it!  You  would  have  begun  to  feel  in  your  pocket 
for  another  dollar  to  help  those  girls.  A  young  widow 
who  recently  lost  her  husband,  said,  "I  have  nothing  now 
to  live  for,  for  myself.  I  would  like  to  take  training  as  a 
nurse,  to  go  out  among  people  in  the  mountains,  and  see 
what  I  could  do  to  help  them."  That  was  a  beautiful 
thought. 

A  girl  said,  "We  have  a  big  family  at  home.  I 
am  the  oldest.  My  mother  is  not  very  strong.  I  am 
going  home  to  help  mother,  and  see  what  we  can  do  to 
to  help  my  sister  come  to  school.  I  can  teach  school. 
After  a  while  that  sister  can  help  mother  and  send  an- 
other, until  we  have  all  come  here  and  have  the  train- 
ing I  have  had."  That  is  generous,  isn't  it?  That  is 
the  spirit  of  service,  to  help  somebody  else. 

Those  girls  not  only  learn  to  cook,  but  learn  the 
way  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  have  their  own  prayer  meet- 
ings, class  meeting  and  Bible  study,  and  a  beautiful 
Christian  life  develops,  in  the  genial  atmosphere  of  those 
homes. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  we  have  homes  for  our  Japanese 
people  and  our  Chinese  girls  and  women,  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Los  Angeles ;  and  are  establishing  another  near 
Seattle.     We  are  trying  to  help  the  people  we  heard 


2o6  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

about    yesterday.     You    haven't  heard  anything    about 
Alaska.    We  have  two  homes  in  Alaska.   We  have  gath- 
ered together  the  native  people,  and  have  a  carpenter 
shop,  a  little  hospital.    We  find  we  are  ministering  to 
those  people  just  what  they  need  and  they  are  responsive. 
Two  earnest  explorers  for  Christ  married  the  day  they 
were  graduated  from  school,  and  started  for  the  region 
away  up  on  the  Behring  sea.    When  they  arrived,  they 
had  no  house,  and  went  into  the  government  building,  a 
while.  We  built  them  a  house,  with  one  side  for  the  boys 
and  girls.   We  started  out  with  the  girls,  only,  but  found 
where  there  was  no  boys'  school,  the  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society,  or  some  other,  had  not  gone  before  us,  our  girls 
had  no  husbands  when  they  got  through.     They  cannot 
marry   boys   that   have   never   had   training.      We   are 
trying  the  same  work  almost  at  the  Arctic  Circle,  that 
we  are  in  Texas  and  Louisiana.     The  good  New  Jersey 
conference  built  a  large  boat,  that  cost  $i,ooo.     They 
gave  the  money  for  it  to  be  built,  in  Seattle.     The  boat 
is  bringing  people  to  our  mission  so  that  we  will  have 
to  build  another  building  soon.     They  tell  us  we  will 
have  to  build  still  another  building,  because  we  have  to 
keep  the  girls  all  summer.    We  cannot  let  them  go  over 
to  Nome,  twenty-seven  miles,  because  there  are  so  many 
bad  Americans  there. 

When  the   seed   is   planted,   the  work  grows  and 
spreads  until  one  thing  develops  another. 

We    work    among    our    Spanish-American    people 


Woman  s  Work  207 

down  in  the  southwest.  We  have  three  such  homes  as 
I  have  described,  at  Albuquerque,  Tucson  and  Los  An- 
geles.    Beautiful  young  Spanish  girls  are  trained. 

Suppose  these  were  your  daughters,  and  you  were 
in  the  position  of  those  colored  people,  mountain  people, 
those  in  Spanish  America,  or  Alaska!  What  would 
we,  if  we  were  there,  want  somebody  to  do  for  us  ? 

One  scarcely  knows  where  to  begin  with  our  city 
problem.  We  have  nearly  400  deaconesse>  working  in 
one  way  or  another,  trying  to  help  out  the  people  that 
need  just  such  help  as  they  can  give  them.  We  had  a 
description  yesterday  of  some  places  called  homes,  that 
are  not  homes  at  all.  Have  you  ever  been  out,  a  cold, 
stormy  evening,  driving  along  in  the  dark,  and  passing  a 
little  hamlet,  seen  one  house  after  another  lit  up,  and 
pictured  to  yourself  what  was  inside  that  house,  how  the 
father  had  come  home  from  his  work,  tired,  hung  his 
coat  in  the  hall,  gotten  his  accustomed  seat,  and  all  the 
troubles  of  the  day  were  forgotten  at  once,  for  he  was  in 
his  own  home.  Then  the  children  home  from  school, 
happy  hearted,  with  empty  dinner  pails,  and  hungry  as 
bears.  I  was  brought  up  in  the  country — I  know. 
Mother  flying  around,  with  a  hot  supper  almost  ready. 
Presently  it  is  on  the  table,  all  are  seated  and  the  father 
asks  the  blessing.  They  begin  the  everlasting  clatter 
about  what  has  been  seen  or  done  during  the  day. 
Everybody  is  interested  in  what  everybody  says.  The 
family  is  shut  in  to  its  own  confidences,  each  loving  the 
other. 


2o8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

That  is  what  we  are  trying  to  do  in  this  Women's 
Home  Missionary  Society  for  all  these  people  for  whom 
we  are  working.  We  want  them  to  have  homes.  If  we 
could  clean  up  some  of  the  terrible  places  in  the  city, 
wouldn't  it  be  the  greatest  thing  ever  done  for  humanity  ? 
Think  of  twenty  people  living  in  one  room!  If  we  could 
get  people  into  proper  homes  we  would  not  have  social- 
ists. The  deaconesses  go  into  those  places.  With  their 
own  hands  they  scrub  the  floors,  wash  the  children,  ^-^i^ 
their  clothing  and  try  to  get  them  into  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances. They  try  to  impress  people  that  they  must 
make  home  attractive.  Do  you  blame  men  for  not  spend- 
ing evenings  at  such  homes?  Or  the  children  for  living 
in  the  streets?  The  whole  problem  is  solved  by  Christi- 
anity and  good  homes. 

Not  only  in  cities  are  our  deaconesses  doing  this 
work.  In  some  sections  of  our  country  people  need  to 
be  shown  how  to  keep  a  home  respectable  and  attractive. 
Three  weeks  ago,  in  the  anthracite  region,  Hazeldon, 
Pa.,  I  saw  three  missionaries  working  to  that  end.  They 
care  for  the  sick  and  comfort  in  sorrow.  There  is 
plenty  of  sorrow.  In  the  afternoon  Sunday  school,  I 
asked  if  the  older  ones  might  not  remain  for  class  meet- 
ing. I  want  to  give  you  the  testimony  of  a  young 
Bohemian,  an  attractive  young  man.  He  said,  "When 
I  came  to  this  country,  I  had  neither  father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  but  since  finding  Christ  I  have."  After 
the  meeting  I  asked,  "What  are  your  plans?"    He  said, 


Woman  s  Work  209 

"I  am  laying  up  money  to  go  to  school,  and  I  am  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  my  people.  I  want  them  to  know 
what  I  have  found  out." 

There  is  work  for  us  in  this  country.  People  say, 
"Anybody  can  go  to  church  that  wants  to,  in  this  coun- 
try ;  there  is  no  need  of  missionary  work."  They  don't 
want  to;  there  is  the  need  for  missionary  work.  We 
want  consecrated,  earnest  young  women  to  go  among 
those  people  and  see  what  they  can  do  for  them.  We 
want  young  women  in  the  home  churches  that  will  or- 
ganize the  young  women  and  instruct  them. 

The  prophet  of  old  saw  the  vision  for  which  he 
prayed,  "If  the  vision  tarry,  wait  for  it,  for  it  will  suiely 
come."  We  need  the  vision.  We  need  this  opening  of 
our  eyes,  to  see  our  opportunities,  the  greatest  the  world 
has  ever  had.  May  the  Lord  give  us  the  vision,  and  he 
surely  will,  if  we  wait  and  earnestly  seek  it. 

(Music.) 


KANSAS    AND    THE  BOARD    OF  HOME  MIS- 
SIONS AND  CHURCH  EXTENSION. 

By  Bascom  Robbins,  Ph.D.,  Superintendent  Em- 
poria District,  South  Kansas  Conference. 

Kansas,  being  in  the  center  of  the  United  States, 
which  is  the  center  of  the  world,  is  the  hub  of  the 
universe. 

It  was  the  battle  ground  of  freedom.  Two  distinct 
civilizations  contended  for  supremacy.  The  one  de- 
termined that  slavery  should  be  imbedded  in  the  con- 
stitution; the  other  equally  insistent,  that  the  foul  blot 
should  not  stain  her  fair  escutcheon.  The  latter  pre- 
vailed, and  when  the  struggle  became  national,  sent 
more  soldiers  than  she  had  voters.  This  spirit  of  liberty 
and  enterprise  has  become  her  characteristic  so  that  she 
is  constantly  at  the  front.  It  is  said  that  an  English- 
man, Frenchman  and  Kansan  met  at  a  banquet  in 
Paris.  The  Englishman  lifted  his  glass  and  said,  "Here 
is  to  England,  the  sun  who  rules  the  day.''  The  French- 
man said,  "Here  is  to  France,  the  moon  who  proudly 
rules  the  night."     The  Kansan  said,  "Here  is  to  Kan- 


What  the  Board  is  Doings  for  the  West  21 1 

sas,  U.  S.,  the  Joshua  who  commanded  and  both  sun 
and  moon  stood  still.'' 

The  evening's  flow  of  wine  overcame  the  dry 
Kansan  and  his  two  companions  put  him  in  a  coffin  and 
placed  him  in  the  cemetery.  When  he  awoke  next 
morning  he  exclaimed,  "The  judgment  day  and  a  Kan- 
san the  first  man  raised." 

"The  world  will  be  slow  to  admit  the  discovery  of 
the  frigid  pole  until  a  Kansan,  or  formerly  of  Kansas 
is  connected  with  the  enterprise. 

Kansas  was  the  Board  of  Home  Missions'  first 
great  opportunity. 

Sturdy  union  soldiers  and  sons  of  Easterners, 
anxious  for  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  farms,  covered  our  Kan- 
sas prairies.  The  Methodist  itinerant  followed  the  trail 
and  claimed  the  country  for  his  "King."  The  Board, 
by  its  method  of  small  appropriations  to  individual  men 
supported  a  multitude  of  workers. 

The  wisdom  of  such  policy  is  now  apparent,  as  we 
were  thus  able  to  render  "first  aid"  to  a  larger  number 
and  save  the  country  lads  who  are  now  our  church 
leaders  in  the  cities. 

Kansas  was  the  Board  of  Church  Extensions'  first 
great  opportunity. 

The  sod  cabin  or  the  lonely  tree  might  be  suitable 
temple  for  temporary  proclamation  and  organization, 
but  Methodism  had  come  to  stay,  so  must  provide  more 
permanent  quarters. 


212  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Bishop  Fowler  once  said :  "A  man  in  the  boarding 
hall  may  leave  on  the  next  train;  the  man  in  a  rented 
house  may  go  at  the  end  of  the  month;  but  the  man  in 
his  own  home  is  likely  to  be  a  fixture." 

So  the  church  in  the  private  house  may  disband; 
the  church  in  the  hired  hall  may  be  transient;  but  the 
church  in  its  own  edifice  is  a  permanent  contribution  to 
the  community. 

The  Board  of  Church  Extension  royally  responded 
to  this  demand  until  the  four  conferences  have  received 
$215,071  in  donations  and  $239,085  in  loans,  helping 
into  existence  1,033  ^^  ^^  i^037  churches. 

III. 

Kansas  has  produced  results  of  which  the  Board 
is  proud. 

Methodism  germinated  as  though  indigenous  to  the 
soil.  Intensive  cultivation  has  produced  abundant  fruit- 
age. The  revivalist  and  church  builder,  under  the 
blessing  of  God,  have  accomplished  the  seemingly  im- 
possible. If  corn  and  alfalfa  are  king  in  the  agricultural 
realm  Methodism  is  king  in  the  religious  world. 

IV. 

Kansas  will  be  the  Board's  productive  endowment 
for  conquests  elsewhere. 

We  are  not  now  a  feeble  company;  we  are  a  vie- 


What  the  Board  is  Doin^  for  the  West  2 1 3 

torious  regiment;  we  are  a  mighty  brigade.  Our  four 
conferences  have  120,000  members,  144,000  in  our 
Bible  schools,  759  conference  ministers  and  four  and 
three-fourths  million  dollars  of  church  property.  We 
are  no  longer  poverty  stricken.  Most  of  us  are  men 
financially.  The  Board  is  receiving  returns,  as  we  have 
paid  into  its  treasury  $144,116  during  the  past  four 
years.  However,  the  Board  has  returned  $78,936  of 
that  amount  for  missionary  and  church  extension  work 
in  our  four  conferences. 

Our  people  could  do  much  more.  As  an  illustra- 
tion. About  half  of  the  members  of  Emporia  district 
are  country  people.  About  half  of  these  are  women. 
Should  each  country  woman  give  one  tgg  per  day  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  would 
receive  from  them  two  and  a  half  times  more  than  the 
district  paid  last  year.  We  ought  to  help  the  Board 
save  the  nation  since  we  are  largely  English  speaking 
people — only  in  the  North,  West  and  Southeast  parts  of 
the  state  have  we  any  foreign  problem  worthy  the  name. 
We  ought  to  help  because  we  do  not  have  to  struggle 
with  the  city  slum  problem.  Kansas  will  continue  to 
make  good  with  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension. 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  A  NEW  DEPARTURE 

By  W.  E.  Doughty,  Educational  Secreteary  Lay- 
men's Missionary  Movement. 

Every  vision  is  twin  brother  to  a  task.  As  the 
closing  hours  of  this  parHament,  with  its  vision  of  op- 
portunity, draw  near,  it  is  fitting  that  we  consider  what 
we  can  do  to  '/neet  the  challenge  which  has  been  pre- 
sented to  us  these  days.  We  have  been  facing  anew 
the  home  missionary  task  of  American  Christianity.  A 
bewildering  array  of  problems  has  been  marshalled  be- 
fore us.  "There  are  problexTis  we  have  inherited ;  prob- 
lems we  have  created,  and  problems  of  destiny."  The 
need  now  is  not  for  more  speeches  but  the  forming  of 
great  purposes.  If  we  have  heard  the  call  aright,  it  is 
a  summons  to  a  new  departure  for  us  as  individuals  and 
for  the  church  of  which  we  are  a  part.  We  have  been 
finding  out  what  kind  of  an  hour  this  is  into  which  we 
have  come;  we  must  now  determine  whether  we  will 
be  men  adequate  to  the  demands  of  this  hour.  The  is- 
sues have  been  made  perfectly  clear;  we  must  now  de- 
cide what  our  attitude  is  to  be  toward  them. 

To  adequately  do  our  share  in  the  solution  of 
American  religious  problems,  there  must  be  a  four-fold 


The  Summons  to  a  New  Departure  215 

program  of  advance.  Let  us  thoughtfully  consider  this 
program  together  and  then  go  away  quietly  into  the  will 
of  God  with  an  indiscouragable  purpose  to  make  this 
the  time  of  a  new  departure  in  our  work  for  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

I.    A  PROGRAM  OF  PRAYER. 

The  deepest  missionary  need  of  our  time  is  the 
need  for  the  development  of  a  vitality  in  the  church 
that  will  be  equal  to  the  strain  of  the  imperialism  of 
Christ.  We  must  have  a  Christianity  worth  propogating 
if  we  are  to  make  a  compelling  appeal  to  the  men  who 
are  not  now  yielded  to  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  no  end 
of  speaking  and  writing,  and  holding  committee  meet- 
ings, and  forming  policies,  and  rushing  to  and  fro,  but 
there  is  need  of  a  dynamic  to  make  all  this  effective. 
The  Church  of  Christ  needs  a  high  and  fine  spiritual 
touch,  and  the  development  and  deepening  life  of  prayer 
if  she  is  to  grapple  successfully  with  the  tremendous 
problems  she  is  facing.  Prayer  has  broken  down  more 
barriers  than  all  the  battalions  and  battle  ships  in  the 
world.  There  must  be  more  definiteness  in  our  pray- 
ing; more  time  spent  upon  this  most  important  mis- 
sionary service  that  any  of  us  can  render,  and  more  pas- 
sion for  prayer  like  that  which  characterized  our  Mas- 
ter. It  has  been  a  very  great  blessing  to  me  personally 
to  notice  that  all  of  Christ's  calls  to  service  have  a  sac- 


2i6  The  Conservation  0/  Our  Moral  Resources 

rifice  clause.  It  was  truly  said  of  Him:  "He  saved 
others;  Himself  He  cannot  save."  That  principle  is 
true  in  the  life  of  every  true  missionary  worker  in  our 
day.  We  must  advance  on  our  knees,  and  there  must 
be  true  sacrifice.  No  more  stirring  phrase  has  ever 
been  spoken  concerning  the  home  missionary  then  this : 
"The  frontier  has  always  advanced  over  missionaries 
graves." 

I  commend  to  your  attention  a  careful  study  of  the 
possibilities  of  the  life  of  prayer,  and  suggest,  among 
other  strong  and  helpful  publications,  "Individual  Pray- 
er as  a  Working  Force,"  by  Gregg,  and  "Intercession  a 
Mighty  Means  of  Usefulness,"  by  McClure.  There  is 
also  in  course  of  preparation  a  package  on  "Prayer  and 
Missions"  which  will  be  issued  by  the  Laymen's  Mis- 
sionary Movement,  and  we  trust  it  may  be  of  very 
great  service  to  the  missionary  leaders  of  America. 

In  the  "Life  of  Sheldon  Jackson"  the  story  is  told 
of  a  prayer-meeting  at  Sioux  City  on  the  banks  of  the 
Missouri  river.  Sheldon  Jackson  and  a  small  group  of 
companions  remained  for  several  hours  in  prayer  that 
Iowa,  Nebraska  and  the  Dakotas  centering  at  that  point 
might  be  captured  for  the  Empire  of  Christ.  If  we 
could  take  in  all  the  significance  of  those  kneeling  fig- 
ures there  by  the  river,  we  would  learn  all  the  mission- 
ary lessons  we  would  need  this  hour.  We  could  not  do 
better  than  to  read  once  more  the  biography  of  David 
Brainerd,  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  man  of  prayer 


The  Summons  to  a  New  Departure  2 1 7 

that  the  home  missionary  enterprise  has  ever  produced. 
If  the  reading  of  such  books  and  the  study  anew  of  the 
prayer  teachings  and  practice  of  the  Bible  would  bring 
us  to  a  deepened  purpose  to  pray  more  for  the  evange- 
lism of  America  and  the  world,  a  new  era  would  dawn 
in  our  missionary  activities. 

II.     A  PROGRAM  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  Church  was  never  so  intelligent  regarding  the 
missionary  enterprise  as  today,  yet  much  remains  to  be 
done.  There  are  large  sections  of  the  church  where  her 
greatest  need  is  a  "first  aid  to  the  ignorant."  It  is  one 
of  the  most  striking  sayings  of  perhaps  Methodism's 
foremost  missionary  orator  today,  that  "the  greatest 
hindrance  to  missions  is  the  blight  of  the  township 
mind."  Just  a  few  days  ago  it  was  my  pleasure  to  go 
over  the  scenes  depicted  in  "David  Harum"  and  to  visit 
the  little  church  whose  members  incurred  the  wrath  of 
David  Harum  because  he  said  "they  were  so  narrow 
that  fourteen  of  them  could  ride  on  a  lumber  wagon 
seat  without  crowding."  I  have  been  greatly  struck 
by  the  closing  words  of  Seeley's  "Expansion  of  Eng- 
land," when  he  says  "I  cannot  make  history  more  inter- 
esting than  it  is  except  by  falsifying  it.  So  when  I 
find  a  man  who  says  that  he  does  not  find  history  in- 
teresting, it  does  not  occur  to  me  to  alter  history ;  I  try 
to  alter  the  man."     Put  the  word  "missions"  in  each 


2i8  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

place  where  the  word  "history"  occurs  in  this  quotation, 
and  you  have  a  strong  statement  of  the  case,  for,  when 
I  find  a  man  who  does  not  find  missions  interesting, 
it  does  not  occur  to  'me  to  change  missions;  I  try  to 
change  the  man.  The  educational  problem  is  the  task 
of  naturalizing  in  the  thinking  and  purpose  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  church,  the  spirit  and  pur- 
pose and  program  of  missions.  This  is  an  immense  task 
and  will  take  constant,  patient  and  increasing  cultiva- 
tion. 

Most  of  us  are  familiar  with  many  of  the  mission- 
ary materials  that  are  being  prepared  for  the  various 
organizations  in  the  church.  But  I  suggest  there  ought 
to  be  a  very  much  larger  use  of  missionary  matter  on 
bulletin  boards,  such  as  charts  and  striking  statistics  put 
up  in  vestibules  of  churches  where  they  can  readily  be 
seen  by  passing  congregations. 

I  would  also  call  attention  to  the  very  valuable  bit 
of  missionary  work  that  is  being  done  by  Emory  Metho- 
dist Church  at  Pittsburg,  of  which  the  Rev.  Dr.  E.  A. 
Piper  is  pastor.  They  have  conducted  a  series  of  com- 
munity studies  by  means  of  an  organization  which  they 
call  'The  Church  Census  Club."  There  were  some 
alarming  facts  revealed  by  the  canvas  of  the  section  of 
the  city  in  which  Emory  Church  is  located.  The  most 
startling  thing  about  the  statistics  is  that  9,000  persons 
expressed  themselves  as  preferring  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church  and  yet  were  not  members  or  attendants 


The  Summons  to  a  New  Departure  219 

of  any  church.  Such  a  study  is  possible  in  any  com- 
munity, and  would  be  of  extreme  value.  Emory  Church 
followed  up  its  work  by  organizing  what  is  called  *The 
Hospitality  Club"  in  which  definite  responsibilities  are 
committed  to  definite  groups  of  people,  such  as  the 
young  people,  women,  children  and  men. 

It  is  hoped  that  there  will  be  a  book  issued  soon 
on  the  Country  Church  problem  which  should  be  stud- 
ied by  thousands  of  our  Methodist  churches. 

It  seems  desirable  once  more  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that  the  Sunday  school  is  the  strategic  missionary  op- 
portunity of  our  day.  A  wealth  of  materials  for  mis- 
sionary instruction  has  been  prepared  at  great  pains  and 
expense,  and  these  materials  are  now  available  for  our 
use. 

And  last  of  all,  let  me  say  that  it  is  a  private  and 
growing  conviction  that  no  method  has  yet  been  devised 
that  any  where  near  approaches  in  effectiveness  and 
thoroughness  the  mission  study  class.  The  small  group 
of  people  meeting  regularly  under  trained  leaders  to 
study  a  theme  a  long  enough  time  so  that  a  large  and 
deep  impression  may  be  made,  is  the  most  valuable  in- 
tensive campaign  of  missionary  education  that  can  be 
conducted.  All  infjorxnation  regarding  materials  if  or 
missionary  education  may  be  obtained  by  writing  the 
Young  People's  Missionary  Department,  150  Fifth  Ave- 
nue, New  York. 


220  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

III.     A  PROGRAM  OF  FINANCE, 

The  educational  campaign  is  necessary  as  an  in- 
spiration. It  deepens  conviction,  arouses  emotions, 
gives  an  intelligent  conception  of  the  missionary  enter- 
prise. The  educational  campaign  should  be  followed 
by  a  financial  campaign.  Let  it  be  re-e'xiiphasized  as 
strongly  as  possible  that  we  need  a  thorough-going 
church- wide  campaign  to  make  clear  the  principles  of 
stewardship.  The  ownership  idea  is  Pagan;  steward- 
ship in  Christian.  Vast  sections  of  the  church  have  not 
yet  any  clear  and  lofty  ideals  of  the  stewardship  of 
money  and  life  and  service.  Some  materials  are  now 
being  prepared  by  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 
and  by  the  Missionary  Education  Move/nent  which  will 
be  of  great  service  in  promoting  stewardship. 

I  am  so  often  reminded  of  that  interesting  letter 
written  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  General  McClellan  during  a 
vexatious  delay  in  one  of  the  campaigns  of  the  Civil 
War.  The  letter  was  to  this  effect:  "Dear  General: 
If  you  do  not  intend  to  use  the  army,  I  would  like  to 
borrow  it.  Yours,  A.  Lincoln."  Sometimes  when  I 
think  of  the  millions  of  members  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  reflect  upon  what  God  has  a  right 
to  expect  of  us  as  the  largest  Protestant  denomination 
of  North  America,  it  seems  that  some  one  might  say  to 
us  "If  you  do  not  intend  to  use  this  mighty  Methodist 
army,  let  us  borrow  it  for  a  while." 


1  he  Summons  to  a  New  Departure  221 

I  have  been  greatly  stimulated  also  by  a  study  of 
the  motto  of  the  Oklahoxiia  State  Sunday  School  Asso- 
ciation. It  has  on  it  a  picture  of  two  jack- rabbits.  On 
one  side  is  a  jack- rabbit  sitting  up  with  his  paws  folded, 
looking  wise.  On  the  other  end  is  a  jack- rabbit  bound- 
ing away  across  the  prairies  as  hard  as  he  can  go,  and 
underneath  the  picture  is  the  motto:  "Our  motto  is  to 
git  up  and  git  and  not  to  sit  up  and  sit.''  It  will  take 
immense  energy  and  forsighted  statesmanship  to  arouse 
and  train  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  it  is  a 
bit  of  work  infinitely  worth  while. 

IV.    A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE. 

Our  aim  should  be  to  increase  to  the  point  of  ade- 
quacy the  number  of  carefully  prepared  candidates 
needed  for  our  home  and  foreign  missionary  activities. 
While  the  Methodist  Church  is  making  a  splendidly  in- 
creasing contribution  to  the  leadership  of  the  mission- 
ary forces  of  the  world,  there  is  still  great  need  that  a 
systematic  and  thorough  cultivation  of  the  whole  field 
be  made  to  discover  young  people  who  ought  to  be  in 
training  for  missionary  service  at  home  and  abroad. 
Let  us  emphasize  three  points : 

In  the  first  place  there  should  be  a  scientific  study 
of  one's  own  community  and  an  unhesitating  acceptance 
of  the  responsibilities  revealed  by  such  a  study.  An  in- 
vestigation of  this  kind  should  always  be  followed  by  an 


222  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

enlistment   of   volunteer  workers   in   various   kinds   of 
service  that  are  always  possible  in  a  community. 

There  should  also  be  a  definite  appeal  made  to  our 
strong  men  and  women  to  consecrate  some  definite  por- 
tion of  their  tixne  to  the  work  of  missionary  education 
and  finance  in  the  local  church. 

Both  these  would  lead  to  and  be  a  part  of  a  church- 
wide  campaign  to  enlist  those  who  desire  to  become 
home  or  foreign  missionaries.  One  method  which  has 
been  employed  in  several  churches  with  great  effective- 
ness, 15  to  set  aside  at  least  one  Sunday  during  each  year 
to  be  known  as  "Kingdom  Day"  or  by  some  other  ap- 
propriate title,  when,  in  all  the  services  of  the  day,  the 
appeal  for  service  to  the  community,  and  for  the  set- 
ting aside  of  definite  time  for  missionary  education, 
and  for  the  commitment  of  life  to  home  or  foreign  mis- 
sionary service  outside  of  the  community,  is  laid  upon 
the  heart  of  every  person  in  the  church  and  congrega- 
tion.    This  method  is  commended  to  all  our  churches. 

Shall  we  not  then  go  forth  from  these  days  of  in- 
spiration and  blessing  with  this  four-fold  program  in 
our  thoughts,  and  with  a  definite  purpose  to  do  our  best 
to  carry  out  such  a  program?  There  will  be  difficul- 
ties and  opposition,  but  no  obstacles  which  prayer  and 
faith  and  patient  effort  cannot  overcome.  Let  us  not 
forget  that  God  desires  these  things  more  than  any  of 
us  possibly  can. 


The  Stcmmons  to  a  New  Departure  223 

I  was  greatly  interested  the  other  day  in  reading 
a  sentence  from  an  essay  submitted  by  a  boy  in  one  of 
our  public  schools  on  the  subject  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution. One  of  the  questions  to  be  discussed  in  this  es- 
say was :  "What  toreign  power  assisted  the  colonies 
in  the  days  of  the  Revolution?"  and  this  boy  answered: 
"The  Foreign  Power  that  helped  the  Colonies  in  the 
days  of  the  Revolution  was  God."  Surely,  God  was 
on  the  side  of  the  pioneers  in  those  early  days,  but  the 
God  of  Bunker  Hill  and  Valley  Forge  is  still  the  God  of 
the  American  Republic. 

Any  agitation  of  the  thorough-going  sort  proposed 
will  arouse  the  animosity  of  some  people  just  as  a  bril- 
liant newspaper  reporter  in  New  York  City  has  aroused 
the  enmity  of  his  friends  because  of  his  persistent  un- 
covering of  wrong  in  the  city  and  national  life.  One 
day  one  of  his  friends  was  reproving  him  for  his  activ- 
ity in  these  matters,  and  said  to  him,  "Oh,  you  are  al- 
ways kicking  the  world."  The  young  newspaper  man 
flashed  back  at  him  this  great  sentence:  "Yes,  I  am 
always  kicking  the  world,  but  remember  that  I  am  al- 
ways kicking  it  toward  the  goal."  After  all,  it  is  a 
matter  of  purpose  as  to  what  we  shall  get  done  after 
this  parliament  closes.     This  is  but  the  beginning. 

"One  ship  sails  east  and  another  sails  west. 
With  the  selfsame  winds  that  blow. 
'Tis  the  set  of  the  sails,  and  not  the  gales 
That  tells  us  which  way  they  go." 


224  ^^^  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resouras 

"Like  the  winds  of  the  sea  are  the  waves  of  fate 
As  we  journey  along  thorugh  life. 
'Tis  the  set  of  the  soul  that  decides  its  goal 
And  not  the  calm  or  the  strife." 

Having  formed  this  purpose,  shall  we  not  go  out 
to  make  Christ  King  in  America  as  never  before  and 
together  say: 

"We'll  crown  Him  high  and  free 
Christ  who  was  and  is  to  be 
The  Master  of  Eternity."  . 


THE     BOARD      OF      HOME      MISSIONS     AND 
CHURCH  EXTENSION. 

CHARLES  M.    BOSWELL^  D.   D.,   ASSISTANT   CORRESPONDING 
SECRETARY. 

In  a  recent  conversation  with  one  of  America's  most 
successful  and  highly  esteemed  inventors,  this  statement 
was  made:  "A  large  portion  of  the  genius  of  this 
country  is  devoted  to  an  effort  to  develop  a  projectile 
that  will  penetrate  any  armor,  and  another  large  portion 
of  the  inventive  genius  of  the  land  is  equally  at  work 
in  an  endeavor  to  create  an  armor  that  will  resist  any 
projectile  that  may  be  hurled  against  it." 

This  is  a  strong  and  suggestive  illustration  of  the 
religious  efforts  being  made  in  the  United  States  and 
its  insular  possessions  at  this  time.  Persistent  attempts 
are  being  made  to  institute  those  things  in  America  that 
will  break  down  our  Protestant  religious  institutions  and 
character.  At  the  same  time  religious  leaders  are  seek- 
ing to  provide  that  which  will  resist  and  hurl  back  all 
such  attempts  that  are  made.  The  latter,  of  course,  aims 
to  keep  America  Christian  and  Protestant. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Exten- 
sion is  the  institution  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


226  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

called  into  existence  in  order  to  rally  its  people  around 
the  flag  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  under  the  banner  of 
"America  for  Christ,"  do  the  work  that  shall  perpetuate 
the  Christian  institutions  in  the  country  and  hold  our 
nation  for  God, 

The  general  cry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
is  the  "World  for  Christ,"  and  in  order  to  bring  that 
about  it  has  organized  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  to 
look  after  the  lands  beyond  the  seas  and  get  the  Gospel 
to  the  people  thereof.  At  the  same  time  it  has  organized 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  to 
get  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  and  its  insular  possessions.  To  the  latter 
has  been  given  all  the  work  heretofore  done  by  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  in  America,  plus  the  work  of  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension,  which  institution  we  represent 
tonight. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of 
Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  at  New  York, 
with  the  Bishops  present  representing  Methodism  as  ex- 
isting in  America  and  some  foreign  lands,  and  two  rep- 
resentatives from  all  the  districts  of  American  Metho- 
dism with  a  local  representation  from  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  at  Philadelphia, 
after  looking  over  all  the  interests  involved  and  the 
needs  demanded,  as  well  as  the  money  required,  it  was 
decided  to  ask  the  church  to  give  as  its  minimum  con- 
tribution for  missionary  work  in  the  homeland  the  sum  of 


Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension     227 

a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars.  These  same  Bishops 
and  district  representatives,  with  representatives  from 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  substituted  for  those  of 
the  Home  Board  at  Philadelphia,  in  a  meeting  at  Al- 
bany, New  York,  after  carefully  surveying  foreign  fields 
and  needs,  concluded  to  request  the  church  for  a  million 
and  a  half  of  dollars  as  its  minimum  contribution,  the 
same  as  had  been  asked  for  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions. This  puts  both  boards  on  an  equal  basis,  mak- 
ing the  apportionments  equal  with  conferences,  districts, 
churches  and  individuals. 

Under  the  care  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension  at  the  present  time  are  4,000  mis- 
sionaries who  are  at  work  among  the  colored  people  of 
the  South;  the  needy  whites  of  the  mountains  in  the 
Southland;  in  mission  work  in  large  cities;  among  the 
Indians  and  foreign  people  of  the  far  West;  on  the 
frontiers;  up  in  Alaska;  in  Hawaii  and  in  Porto  Rico. 
These  are  preaching  the  Gospel,  in  addition  to  English 
speaking  people,  to  the  Welsh,  Swedes,  Germans,  Nor- 
wegian and  Danish,  French,  Spanish,  Chinese,  Japanese, 
Bohemians,  Hungarians,  Italians  and  Portuguese;  also 
to  deaf  mutes.  They  are  laboring  in  behalf  of  the 
68,000,000  of  our  population  who  are  not  in  evangelical 
churches.  They  work  in  the  cities,  in  tenement  houses, 
red  light  districts,  and  foreign  quarters.  They  are  in 
the  rural  sections  of  New  England  and  the  rapidly  de- 
veloping states   and   territories   of  the   far   Northwest. 


228  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

They  are  up  in  the  ice-bound  regions  of  Alaska  taking 
care  of  those  who  are  there  seeking  the  gold  that  God 
has  placed  in  the  pockets  of  the  earth.  They  are  over  in 
Porto  Rico  among  the  500,000  people  assigned  to 
Methodism  for  evangelization. 

For  them  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church 
Extension  is  making  this  appeal.  It  wants  missionaries 
who  are  willing  to  go  to  any  class  of  people,  without 
regard  to  color  of  skin,  or  language  of  tongue,  or  the 
conditions  in  which  they  live,  to  give  them  a  knowledge 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  desire  money  in  order 
that  men  may  have  a  sufficient  support  to  take  care  of 
them,  their  wives  and  children,  while  they  themselves 
are  laboring  to  save  the  land  in  which  they  live. 

In  some  places  the  average  salaries  of  Methodist 
ministers  who  are  working  in  hard  mission  fields  is 
$264 ;  in  others  $234 ;  in  yet  others  $202.  It  is  for  these 
that  we  seek  to  secure  sufficient  funds  to  give  the  kind 
of  living  that  such  work  deserves.  We  seek  to  furnish 
parsonages  for  the  missionary  where  he  may  be  located, 
in  which  he  may  leave  his  wife  and  children  while  he  is 
off  on  his  large  circuit,  and  to  which  he  may  return  for 
comfort  after  the  labors  that  have  demanded  such  sac- 
rifice. We  are  striving  to  furnish  churches  by  the  mak- 
ing of  loans  or  donations,  so  that  every  section  of  the 
country  in  which  there  is  not  a  church  will  have  one  sup- 
plied for  the  great  denomination  of  which  we  are  a  part. 
We  have  aided  up  to  this  time  over  1 5,000  such  churches 


Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension     2  29 

which  could  not  have  had  an  existence  had  it  not  been 
for  the  helping  hand  extended  to  them  by  us.  At  pres- 
ent over  800  churches  are  seeking  financial  help  from 
the  institution  which  we  represent.  There  are  837  towns 
in  the  State  of  Washington  without  a  religious  service. 
There  are  200  school  districts  in  Montana  without  a  Sun- 
day school  of  any  character. 

For  such  we  are  calling  to  men  and  women  that 
they  may  give  themselves  and  their  money  to  Christian- 
ize the  section  in  which  such  work  is  needed. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  will  be  an  in- 
spirational gift  through  which  other  contributions  may 
be  secured  that  will  secure  the  erection  of  a  church  cost- 
ing from  $1,500  to  $2,000  in  addition  to  the  cost  of  the 
ground.  Any  one  giving  such  an  amount  may  place  up- 
on the  building  a  name  of  a  loved  one  and  thus  con- 
stitute a  memorial  that  will  do  great  good — ^special  gifts 
in  honor  of  the  one  for  whom  it  has  been  named.  When 
sufficient  money  has  been  given  to  this  Board  for  the 
purposes  indicated,  a  great  step  will  have  been  taken 
toward  the  movement  in  which  America  shall  be  brought 
to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  when  America  has  been 
conquered  all  other  nations  are  sure  to  follow. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Exten- 
sion is  creating  Home  Missionary  enthusiasm,  intelli- 
gently informing  the  people  concerning  the  fields,  show- 
ing how  the  Gospel  can  reach  the  strangers  from  for- 
eign lands,  influencing  persons  to  go  to  all  sections  of 


230  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

America  as  missionaries,  securing  money  for  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  homeland  by  the  support  of  mission- 
aries, erection  of  homes  and  building  of  churches. 

As  our  fathers  and  mothers,  when  the  call  came  to 
save  the  country  in  the  days  of  '61,  placed  their  all  upon 
the  nation's  altar,  not  even  holding  their  lives  dear,  so 
may  we,  when  the  call  is  given  "America  for  Christ" 
consecrate  the  best  we  have  to  bring  that  day  to  pass. 

(Dr.  Coker  called  on  Bishop  Quayle,  who  at  this 
moment  entered  the  church.) 


IMPROMPTU  ADDRESS. 

BISHOP  QUAYLE. 

It  is  not  my  time  to  speak.  However,  this  whole 
business  we  are  in  today,  is  so  engaging,  not  to  say 
thrilling,  that  it  would  be  a  poor  order  of  appreciation, 
that  would  not  say  a  word  of  enthusiasm. 

The  song  of  state's  rights  was  a  song  of  littleness, 
standing  for  the  little  against  the  large.  United  States' 
rights  are  better  than  State's  rights,  because  bigger. 

Now,  that  seems  to  me  to  be  about  as  I  read  his- 
tory, the  pith  of  State's  rights.  Say,  what  you  like,  a 
continent  is  more  to  be  desired  than  an  island.  I  read 
a  funny  old  book,  written  when  America  was  just  found. 
It  said,  ''America  is  like  unto  an  island,  the  length  and 
breath  thereof,  however,  no  man  knoweth." 

My  father  and  mother  lived  on  an  island.  When 
they  got  big,  they  moved  out.  We  are  big,  over  here. 
If  God  would  help  us  in  our  mentality,  and  spiritual  na- 
ture, to  be  as  big  as  the  continent,  that  is  what  we  need. 
If  somebody  would  invite  me  to  join  a  church  that 
snugged  up  to  itself  and  hugged  itself,  and  gave  no 
thought  to  anybody  else,  never  passed  the  hat  for  any- 
body but  itself,  not  a  minute  would  I  belong  to  a  thing 


^32  The  Co7tservatton  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

reduced  to  a  diminished  unit.  I  want  to  belong  to  a 
thing  that  reaches  out  into  the  universe.  If  I  had  an 
arm  long  enough  I  would  reach  out  and  grab  the  coat  tail 
of  a  star — just  for  the  fun.  I  would  not  expect  to  hold 
the  star  back  but  I  would  like  to  hold  its  coat  tail  for  a 
minute.  The  trouble  is,  that  people  do  not  live  in  con- 
tinents of  thought.  Cicero  always  thrills  me  as  though  I 
were  caught  in  an  electric  storm,  on  a  mountain  summit. 
Why  ?  Because  he  thought  from  north  to  south,  through 
the  forest,  over  the  mountains,  to  the  purple  sea.  He 
was  big  enough  to  have  continents  in  his  perspective. 
When  we  get  big  enough  to  see  continental  proportions, 
that  is  when  we  will  walk  in  God's  way. 

You  remember  the  lean  kine,  in  the  Bible,  that  ate 
the  fat  ones,  and  did  not  get  fat.  What  business  has  a 
minister  to  keep  on  eating  the  members'  chickens,  in  his 
church,  and  never  fatten  up  ?  All  district  superintendents 
ought  to  be  fat.  The  lean  kine  consumed  the  fat  kine 
and  grew  not  fat.  If  we  get  big  notions  we  ourselves 
will  grow  big,  so  we  can  say,  'T  can  see  to  the  western 
rim  of  the  continent." 

When  I  was  pastor  of  a  church  (that  is  all  I  know 
except  farming — farming  is  my  specialty),  every  once 
in  a  while  I  would  have  some  lean  brethren  say  they  did 
not  wish  collections.  So  I  did  not  take  collections.  Noth- 
ing like  being  little  like  your  brethren.  But  I  would 
dump  all  collections  into  one  heaping  collection  and  take 
it.     My  theory  was,  to  see  a  great  big  collection  being 


Impromptu  Address  233 

taken  would  widen  them  out.  One  morning  we  said, 
"We  will  take  five  minutes  before  the  sermon,  $1500  a 
minute,  come  on  in."  We  got  it.  We  didn't  take  any 
"collections,"  we  took  "a  collection."  I  said,  "We  don't 
take  collections  in  this  church."  The  secretaries  do  not 
like  "omnibusing ;"  but  still  what  the  secretaries  want  is 
big  bussing, — they  just  want  the  bus  full.  We  put 
plenty  in,  and  took  it  all  up  at  once  and  widened  them 
out.  Did  I  apologize?  Never  once.  I  said,  "I  feel  so 
frisky  this  morning  I  don't  know  what  to  do;  we  are 
going  to  have  a  collection,  everybody  that  is  big,  chip  in. 
If  there  are  any  small  people,  don't  give."  It  is  wonder- 
ful how  many  chips  were  in  that  basket. 

I  don't  want  to  belong  to  a  little  church,  that  has 
no  universal  interest.  The  church  of  God  on  the  ground 
is  filling  up  the  church  of  God  which  is  in  the  skies.  If 
we  don't  hurry  up  in  this  world,  God  won't  have  a  big 
church,  and  it  would  be  a  pity  for  Jesus  to  preach  to  a 
small  congregation.  The  church  on  earth  is  giving  away 
people  to  the  church  of  the  First  Born,  which  is  in 
heaven.  We  call  it  death  roll,  but  we  ought  to  say,  the 
roll  of  the  people  that  have  been  called  up  higher.  They 
are  full  brothers,  we  the  probationers.  How  much  ought 
we  to  broaden  out  the  church  of  God  on  this  earth?  I 
like  the  Home  Missionary  movement  because  it  has 
vision,  and  breadth,  and  scope,  and  makes  life  con- 
tinental in  the  Methodist  church.  I  understand  this 
church  is  in  Springfield,  Illinois.     Is  there  anything  to 


234  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

that?  (Voice,  Yes.)  That  is  where  I  bought  a  ticket 
to.  They  have  a  church  in  Oklahoma  City.  What  are 
the  churches  in  Springfield  and  Oklahoma  doing,  when 
they  give  to  the  Board  of  Home  Mission  and  Church  Ex- 
tension ?  Answer :  They  are  becoming  as  wide  as  the 
flag  of  the  stars  and  stripes,  thank  God,  in  Porto  Rico, 
and  the  North  Pole,  which  is  our  harbor  at  the  north. 

Doesn't  it  make  you  feel  good,  out  at  Hillsboro, 
Jacksonville  and  Quincy,  to  feel  you  are  one  with  every 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  on  the  continent?  That  is 
what  this  means.  In  other  words,  this  is  strategic,  states- 
manlike, and  a  continental  appeal  to  the  bigness  that  is 
in  people's  minds. 

They  want  to  build  churches  where  they  havn't  got 
any.  Go  over  to  help  the  folks  that  need  help.  Let  them 
have  a  Methodist  Episcopal  church  everywhere.  Some 
times  I  dedicate  two  churches  a.  Sunday,  and  again  three 
churches  on  a  Sunday.  Isn't  that  fine  ?  That  is  the  way 
we  do  in  Oklahoma.  I  am  going  up  to  the  little  town 
of  Minneapolis  next  Sunday  and  dedicate  two  churches. 
They  said,  "Stay  two  Sundays."  "Not  much,  Mary 
Anne,  I  haven't  got  two  Sundays,  I  am  William  A. 
Quayle."  So  they  will  dedicate  two  churches  on  Sun- 
day in  Minneapolis  and  Oklahoma,  you  see  what  they 
are  doing.  Building  churches.  What  kind?  Methodist 
Episcopal.  Who  helped  them?  The  Board  of  Church 
Extension  and  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  Don't  you 
have  to  have  a  finger  in  that  pie  ?    You  can  have  it.    I'll 


Impromptu  Address  235 

tell  you  what  I  think,  this  is  to  you  privately,  and  don't 
let  the  laymen  hear  what  I  say !  If  you  men  will  "spunk 
up,"  and  without  any  sort  of  equivocation,  ovasion,  hesi- 
tation or  apology  in  your  voices,  say,  "Come  on,  folks, 
we  are  going  to  be  big  today  and  help  the  United  States 
of  America."  The  preacher  usually  says,  "Now,  broth- 
ers, I  regret  to  state  that  we  have  now  come  to  a  matter 
I  don't  like  to  suggest,  but  in  view  of  the  fact  it  is  one  of 
the  collections  of  the  church,  and  I  will  be  asked  whether 
collections  have  all  been  taken  in  full,  I  desire  that  you 
may  contribute  your  mite,"  (Laughter.)  or  words  to 
that  affect.  You  hear  that,  right  along.  Spunk  up! 
I  think  you  are  big  enough  to  be  big.  Prove  it  to  me. 
The  laymen  will  respond  to  that,  as  sure  as  you  live. 
They  won't  all  answer  it.  Some  of  the  laymen  won't 
answer  to  anything  but  the  summons  of  death ;  but  they 
are  very  few,  and  we  can  do  this  thing  without  missing 
them.  I  know  America  reasonably  well.  If  anything 
will  appeal  to  our  laymen,  it  is  going  to  be  the  thing. 
You  talk  tiddly  winks  to  them,  they  say,  "O,  pshaw, 
we  are  doing  that  all  the  time.  Put  a  church  on  the  ice 
banks  of  Alaska,  and  put  ten  churches  over  in  Hay- 
wood's County.  That  is  the  thing.  Do  something  big! 
Most  people  who  are  poor  are  very  willing  for  the 
rich  to  give.  That  is  a  curious  wrinkle  of  the  gray 
matter  and  white,  in  most  people's  brain.  We  do  not 
need  the  rich  man  to  give  more,  we  need  the  every  day 
man  to  give  more.     There  are  not  enough  rich  people. 


236  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

any  way,  to  make  much  difference  whether  they  give 
more  or  less.  There  are  few  of  them,  but  the  ordinary, 
every  day  folks,  poor  people,  that  own  thousand  acre 
farms,  and  things  like  that,  where  the  soil  is  1700  miles 
deep,  in  Illinois — we  better  spunk  up!  Come  on  now. 
Let  me  tell  you,  if  the  farmers  of  Illinois,  who  are  Meth- 
odists, would  give  according  as  God  has  prospered  them 
and  demands  of  them,  we  would  have  three  million  dol- 
lars. This  thing  is  easy.  You  know  we  can  do  it. 
Let's  make  the  big  appeal.  Once  upon  a  time^ — I  was 
just  born,  I  didn't  notice  anyboldy's  call,  I  was  calling 
lively  myself,  and  listening  to  my  own  voice — ^but  there 
was  a  call  ''Come  over  and  save  the  union."  Come  fellows 
quit  the  plow  in  the  field,  left  the  bolt  of  muslin  on  the 
counter,  left  the  hot  iron  in  the  blacksmith  shop,  and 
went  to  save  the  union.  Why?  They  answered  the  big 
call.  Come  and  save  America.  That  is  the  call.  I  think 
they  will  answer  it.  Brother  Coker. 

Dr.  Coker,  in  introducing  Secretary  Piatt,  said: 
We  have  come,  I  think  to  the  climax  of  this  con- 
vention or  will,  when  the  Amen  is  said.  We  have  here 
tonight  one  of  the  great  secretaries  of  the  Board  of 
Home  Misisons  and  Church  Extensions,  who  knows 
more  in  a  moment  than  most  of  us  in  a  year.  He  has 
facts  and  figures,  and  I  am  glad  tonight  to  present  Dr. 
Ward  Piatt,  who  will  speak  upon  how  the  Board  is  meet- 
ing the  mighty  challenge  that  is  coming  from  every- 
where.   Thank  God,  we  will  meet  it  and  conquer  it! 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY  UPON  THE  BOARD  OF 
HOME  MISSIONS. 

REV.    WARD   PLATT,   D.D. 

I  think  I  will  hardly  rise  to  an  introduction  as  large 
as  that.  I  must  say  in  passing  that  I  know  you  have  an 
appreciation  of  the  work  of  Dr.  Coker.  These  conven- 
tions, in  the  various  parts  of  the  country,  have  elevated 
the  whole  level  of  missionary  interest.  I  remarked  today 
that  in  one  state,  where  there  are  four  conferences,  and 
as  many  conventions  were  held,  the  increase  in  offerings 
to  our  board,  the  first  year  was  between  $7,cxx>  and 
$8,000.  When  an  increase  is  reached,  you  will  find  on 
the  average  it  does  not  again  get  below  that.  A  man 
that  can  preach  thirty  years,  and  save  a  thousand  dol- 
lars, must  be  a  mighty  fine  financier.  He  can  run  con- 
ventions, or  anything.  He  has  never  yet  drawn  on  our 
board  for  a  dollar  for  expenses  in  all  this  great  work. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  a  man  representing  the  great 
cause,  that  can  do  work  like  that.  And  you  are  not 
going  to  leave  him  in  the  lurch.  He  reminds  me  of  the 
irrepressible  Irishman  that  sent  for  a  setting  of  game 
eggs,  and  was  sent  duck  eggs.     Somebody  said,  "How 


238  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

are  your  game  chicks?"  "O,  splendid,  feet  on  them  like 
ducks.  Nothing  under  Heaven  can  tip  them  over." 
Coker  is  always  right  side  up. 

I  want  to  express  to  you,  for  our  Board,  tonight, 
our  great  appreciation  of  the  co-operation  of  the  dis- 
trict superintendents  and  pastors,  of  this  conference. 
You  have  helped  us  to  make  this  convention  what  it  has 
been. 

The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  is  the 
strong  right  arm  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extensions,  and  we  could  not  do  without  it,  any 
more  than  you  could  have  a  home  without  a  wife.  They 
do  not  cross  lines  with  us  anywhere,  and  yet  their  work 
is  absolutely  fundamental  and  essential  to  ours.  When- 
ever you  want  to  help  in  the  most  vital  fashion,  to  bring 
speedily  the  millenium  to  America,  and  through  America 
to  the  world,  stand  by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
organization.  If  you  haven't  one  in  your  church,  per- 
suade the  good  women  there  to  see  to  it  that  there  is 
such  an  auxiliary. 

Three- fourths  of  the  world  is  at  present  in  a  state 
of  change.  There  has  never  been  such  an  epoch  since 
the  days  of  Adam..  Japan  not  long  ago  took  upon  her- 
self a  new  front  and  has  become  the  leader  of  the 
Orient.  She  has  been  learning  from  the  United  States, 
and  now  has  become  the  schoolmaster  of  Asia.  Japan  to- 
day, more  than  any  other  nation,  is  fixing  the  standards 
and  prescribing  the  methods  for  the  school  system  of  the 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  239 

Orient.  China  within  five  years  has  made  more  rapid 
strides  toward  western  civihzation  than  did  Japan  dur- 
ing the  first  ten  years  of  her  mercantile  advance.  The 
movement  gathers  force  constantly,  to  have  schools  of 
the  western  kind  scattered  widely  over  that  country. 
In  japan  you  have  about  six  million  at  school  and  in 
the  same  proportion,  when  China  comes  up  to  that 
standard,  you  will  have  more  than  fifty  million  at  school 
in  that  country — more  than  any  other  nation  of  the 
earth.  If  you  go  to  Turkey,  you  will  find  that  within 
three  years'  time  literally  a  nation  has  been  born,  that 
from  one  end  of  that  Empire  to  another  you  have  free- 
dom of  speech.  Very  recently  Persia  has  had  the  cover 
lifted,  and  the  predominant  idea  is  that  the  western  learn- 
ing shall  be  within  the  reach  of  the  people  of  Persia. 
In  South  Africa,  where  the  different  nationalities  are 
beginning  to  feel  a  sense  of  unity,  a  national  conscious- 
ness is  awaking.  There  are  500,000  inmates  of  institu- 
tions of  higher  learning  in  India,  and  the  question  ever 
pressing  toward  realization  is,  **We  are  to  be  a  nation 
for  ourselves."  In  Corea  and  Siam  are  marvelous 
awakenings.  Three-fourths  of  the  human  race  rising 
from  the  lethargy  of  the  past,  look  out  and  say,  "We  are 
going  to  have  a  civilization  and  learning  like  that  of  the 
United  States  of  America."  This  country  stands  today 
as  a  city  set  on  a  hill.  The  Americanism  of  the  world  is 
close  at  hand.  As  demonstrated  by  W.  T.  Stead  in  his 
book,  what  the  United  States  of  America  is,  is  to  deter- 


240  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

mine  in  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  what  is  to  be  the 
character  of  this  earth ;  and  then  there  is  another  peculiar- 
ity about  that.  You  will  notice  that  the  old  faiths  are 
putting  on  a  new  front,  and  Buddhism  finds  that  in  the 
light  of  this  modern  progress,  and  in  the  new  desire 
for  learning,  and  in  the  pushing  back  of  the  mediaeval 
darkness,  that  it  cannot  stand  that  kind  of  illumination, 
and  so  it  begins  to  take  upon  itself  the  methods  of 
Christianity.  The  Buddists  have  organized  something 
like  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  order  to  hold  their  younger  gen- 
eration. You  will  find  that  Confucianism  has  given  it- 
self a  new  emphasis,  as  it  thinks,  by  installing  Buddha 
recently  in  the  position  of  a  deity,  exalting  him,  think- 
mg  possibly  he  might  rank  with  the  Lx)rd  Jesus  Christ. 
You  will  find  that  Mohammedanism  takes  on  an  ag- 
gressive front.  There  is  this  thought,  seemingly,  among 
the  old  faiths,  that  the  day  has  come  in  which  they  must 
stand  their  ground,  and  every  one  of  those  ancient  faiths 
takes  upon  itself  a  modern  front. 

Another  fact  to  be  taken  into  consideration  is  that 
three-fourths  of  the  human  race  today  is  of  an  open 
mind,  of  a  plastic  nature,  where  for  all  the  centuries  it 
has  been  like  granite  and  steel,  against  anything  like 
progress.  You  know  that  the  tendency  of  the  oriental 
mind  is  to  become  fixed,  like  it  has  been  fixed  by  those 
centuries.  This  is  an  opportunity  that  comes  once  in 
the  world.  We  are  the  people  who  stand  over  against 
that  opportunity.    The  faces  of  three-fourths  of  human- 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  2 4 1 

ity  are  directed  toward  this  city,  this  Hght  upon  a  hill; 
and  whatever  we  are  in  this  country,  we  are  to  stamp 
the  world  with  our  image  in  the  next  fifteen  years.  Then 
the  question  comes:  What  kind  of  a  country  we  are, 
and  how  necessary  it  is  to  elevate  that  image  to  that  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  will  suppose  that  you  have 
before  you  here  a  map  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
the  map  be  colored,  as  much  of  it  dark  blue  as  would 
represent  the  proportion  of  the  people  that  are  not  gath- 
ered into  the  evangelical  churches.  Then  let  as  much 
of  it  be  colored  white  as  would  represent  those  gathered 
in.  You  will  notice  that  less  than  one-fourth  of  that  map 
is  white.  In  other  words,  we  have  about  twenty  million 
of  people  in  the  evangelical  churches,  and  about  seventy 
millions  outside  of  the  evangelical  churches.  You  say, 
"Why  don't  you  call  in  all  the  missionary  forces  from 
all  the  frontiers  across  the  sea  and  concentrate  them, 
concentrate  every  energy,  upon  making  more  of  that 
map  white?"  You  would  not  think  that  any  such  nar- 
row interpretation  is  worth  while.  It  would  not  be 
worth  my  time  or  your  support,  to  attempt  to  initiate 
anything  of  that  character;  but  we  must  see  to  it  that 
this  map  is  painted  white,  in  order  that  the  light  of  the 
world  may  shine  in  the  dark  corners  of  the  earth.  Say 
for  example,  that  twenty-four  millions  of  money  are 
given  now  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world,  by  the 
so-called  Christian  nations,  and  that  eighty-five  per  cent, 
comes  from  the  Anglo-Saxon.     He  is  not  your  typical 


242  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

saint,  but  he  does  respond  to  the  claim  of  the  Gospel 
upon  him,  as  does  no  other  man,  and  of  that  went v- four 
milHons  of  dollars,  about  ten  and  one-half  millions,  or 
approximately  half  of  it,  comes  out  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  Broadly  speaking,  it  does  not  come  out 
of  that  blue,  it  comes  out  of  that  white,  and  if  I  were 
before  you  tonight,  and  enlarging  upon  the  fact  the 
world  was  starving  for  corn,  and  one-half  of  all  the 
corn  that  kept  the  world  from  starving  came  out  of 
that  white  spot,  and  all  that  blue  was  corn  land  un- 
developed, you  might  say,  ''What  is  the  use  of  talking 
about  that?  That  white  spot  has  kept  nearly  half  the 
world  from  starvation;  why  doesn't  the  other  part  go 
to  work  and  break  up  as  much  more  white  as  you  have 
now,  you  would  keep  the  rest  of  the  world  from  starv- 
ing?" It  is  my  conviction  if  there  was  not  a  furrow 
turned  anywhere  else,  beyond  what  is  now  being  done, 
in  fifteen  years  more  the  world  can  be  evangelized.  Is 
Home  Missions  and  Church  Extensions  a  narrow  propo- 
sition, confined  between  two  oceans?  It  is  not  America 
for  America's  sake,  but  for  the  world's  sake.  When  you 
come  to  think  of  breaking  up  that  corn  field,  you  know 
there  are  more  stones  in  it,  of  ancient  obstacles,  than  any 
other  particular  plot  of  ground  you  can  find  anywhere 
else.  I  need  not  stop  to  enumerate  various  problems 
that  confront  the  Board,  but  I  will  say  that  this  Board — 
as  you  have  termed  it,  the  greatest  Protestant  body  in 
the  world — is  today  helping  to  support  4,000  Methodist 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  243 

preachers  in  missionary  work.  That  is  one  Methodist 
preacher  out  of  every  four.  They  are  preaching  the 
Gospel  in  twenty-five  different  languages,  and  dialects, 
on  American  soil.  It  is  pretty  hard  work  to  draw  the 
line  between  home  missions  and  foreign  missions. 

Then,  if  you  consider  church  extension,  15,000 
church  buildings  have  been  helped  into  existence  or  over 
a  crisis  by  the  church  extension  work.  One-half  of  all 
the  buildings  are  in  this  country.  What  do  I  mean  about 
painting  that  map  white?  I  mean  this — I  don't  know 
how  long  ago  it  was  we  went  into  Iowa.  You  may 
regard  it  in  some  respects  as  a  high  water  mark  of 
Methodism.  The  greater  number  of  the  churches  there, 
were  helped  into  existence  by  the  church  extension  board. 

The  State  of  Colorado  about  twelve  years  ago  had 
15,000  members,  giving  $20,700  for  all  the  benevolences. 
Our  share  may  have  been  about  $3,000.  I  am  not  saying 
we  did  not  get  our  share.  It  was  pretty  largely  then 
home  missionary  proposition.  Now,  after  twelve  years, 
Colorado  Methodism  has  30,000  members,  instead  of 
15,000,  and  they  gave,  within  a  year,  not  $20,700  to 
benevolences,  but  they  gave  ninety  thousand  dollars  to 
the  benevolences.  I  think  about  $11,000  of  that  money 
came  to  us.  I  am  not  saying  we  did  not  get  our  share; 
but  is  it  a  good  thing  to  have  a  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions and  Church  Extension,  that  keeps  the  ground  under 
the  feet  of  men,  in  order  that  they  can  take  up  money 
for  the  other  benevolences  of  the  church?    You  can  see 


244  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

how  fundamental  to  our  entire  Methodism  is  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension,  as  well  as 
fundamental  to  the  future  of  world  evangelization.   Take 
the  American  city  as  a  type  of  the  difficulty  of  the  paint- 
ing of  this  map  white.     There  isn't  any  city  like  it  in 
any  so-called  Christian  country.     Our  English  brethren 
tell  us  the  best  thing  we  can  do  is  to  build  great  central 
halls  in  those  cities  and  gather  the  unevangelized  people 
together.     It    is   greatly    to   the   credit    of    the    British 
Brethren,   for  what  they  are  doing,  but  the  fact  is,  in 
London  and  Manchester,  they  could  not  get  any  audience 
together,  but  ninety  per  cent,  could  understand  the  Eng- 
lish language.     In  parts  of  this  country  you  would  have 
to  preach  it  in  fifty-four  different  languages,  to  make  it 
understood.    If  tens  of  dollars  would  be  sufficient  in  any 
other  Christian  land,  hundreds  would  not  do  the  same 
thing  on  American  soil.     That  is  brought  about  largely 
by  the  immigrant  coming  into  our  country,  and  there 
had  been  no  invasion  like  it  since  the  beginning  of  time. 
He  is  coming  in  at  the  rate  of  three  a  minute.     Not  one 
in  twenty-five  ever  gets  beyond  New  York   or  Penn- 
sylvania.   Take  a  single  example  of  this  congested  popu- 
lation and  of  the  responsibilities  that  are  accumulating 
upon  the  church.    Cut  that  map  of  the  United  States  into 
two  equal  parts.     There  are   as  many  people  in  New 
York  as  in  the  whole  western  half  of  the  United  States. 
One-third  of  all  the  people  living  in  New  York  came 
into  it  in  fifteen  years.     Its  growth  equals  that  of  any 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  245 

five  states  west  of  the  Mississippi,  put  together.  The 
growth  of  New  York  in  five  years  makes  the  whole  city 
of  St.  Louis.  There  are  as  many  people  absolutely  un- 
churched, of  either  Protestantism  or  Catholicism  in  that 
one  state,  as  populate  the  whole  Pacific  slope.  You 
ask  us  what  we  are  coming  to.  We  might  as  well  take 
the  hopeful  outlook.  A  woman  told  her  pastor  she  had 
been  troubled  with  her  eyesight.  She  said,  "I  consulted 
an  optimist,  and  I  am  seeing  better  than  I  did  a  while 
ago!''  That  is  the  kind  of  eyesight  we  need.  Brother 
Potts  has  been  telling  us,  in  his  inimitable  fashion,  about 
the  Jew.  Who  does  not  revere  the  Jew? — for  in  him 
is  the  race  and  personality  of  Christ!  There  are  one 
million  Jews  in  Manhattan  Island.  If  they  all  started 
to  the  Protestant  churches,  you  would  find  that  330,000 
could  not  get  into  a  church  at  all.  That  is  one  class  of 
foreigners.  You  say  they  would  not  come  to  our  church 
at  all.  Don't  be  sure.  The  fact  is,  when  the  mother 
tongue  of  any  people  brings  home  to  them  the  story  of 
Jesus,  they  are  like  ourselves — they  submit  and  they 
come  under  the  spell  and  charm  of  his  name.  There 
are  people  I  suppose  that  say  New  York  has  gotten  so 
big  and  so  bad,  and  there  are  so  many  foreigners  there 
we  cannot  touch  that  proposition.  If  that  is  going  to  be 
the  case,  somebody  will  say,  your  opportunity  is  too 
small  for  my  spirit,  and  you  would  be  speaking  rightly 
concerning  that  matter.  When  you  think  of  this,  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  said,  ''All  power  is  given  unto  me, 


246  7  he  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

in  Heaven  and  in  Earth."  That  is  all  that  is  necessary. 
He  said,  "Go  ye,  therefore,  tell  this  story  everywhere,  to 
everybody,  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."  Everything  crumbles  away  when 
our  Christ  is  with  us.  "Ah,"  but  you  say,  "We  have  so 
little," — never  mind  about  that.  Jesus  faced  5,000 
hungry  ones,  and  said,  "You  need  not  send  any  away 
hungry.  How  much  have  you?"  Our  hope  is  the 
divine  interpretation  of  this  matter.  Somehow  will  be 
supplied  the  mission  link.  Christ's  blessing  transformed 
the  five  loaves  and  two  fishes,  and  everybody  was  satis- 
fied and  happy  when  they  were  through,  and  they  gath- 
ered up  twelve  basketsfull,  instead  of  five  loaves.  That 
is  the  only  way  we  will  attain  the  end.  Twelve  baskets- 
full  are  better  than  five  loaves!  It  is  because  of  this 
Christ  is  in  our  midst,  and  because,  with  the  gladness  in 
your  hearts,  you  are  going  to  keep  step  with  his  im- 
perial march.  There  is  no  doubt  concerning  what 
Christ's  purpose  is,  for  the  whole  world,  through  the 
agency  of  this  land  of  ours.  And  when  I  note  this  fact 
also — that  we  have  in  our  hands  the  power  to  do  this 
work — I  mean  in  the  material  sense.  .  You  say — What 
is  the  board  asking?  The  boards  are  asking  this  year, 
foreign  and  home,  one  million  and  a  half  each.  You 
say — That  is  a  lot  of  money;  I  don't  see  how  we  can 
ever  reach  it. 

A  brother  got  this  on  his  heart,  and  he  wrote  our 
board  upon  it.     I  looked  over  his  communication,  as  it 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  247 

lay  on  my  desk.  He  told  his  experience.  He  felt  that 
something  must  be  done  right  away.  He  said,  "I  went 
out  to  the  hen  house."  He  wanted  to  relieve  his  mind. 
He  told  those  hens  that  something  had  to  be  done  and 
done  right  away.  He  said,  *'I  am  going  to  organize  you 
into  a  missionary  society."  It  was  the  cold  month  of 
December.  *'I  will  feed  you  and  encourage  you,  and  do 
everything  I  can.  Every  last  cent  you  can  raise  goes  to 
the  cause  of  foreign  missions  in  December,  and  in  Janu- 
ary to  home  missions."  Those  hens  gave  a  little  over 
$17.  It  is  not  fair  to  compare  Methodists  to  hens,  but 
if  the  Methodists  gave,  for  twelve  months'  time,  just 
what  the  hens  gave  us,  in  two  months'  time,  we  would 
have  over  twelve  millions  in  our  treasury,  instead  of  one 
and  a  half. 

Let  us  indeed  be  thankful  we  have  so  much,  so 
easily  within  our  reach.  What  is  the  purpose  of  all 
this?  O'ue  of  the  first  works  of  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  and  Church  Extensions,  is  that  in  addition  to 
other  calls  upon  it,  it  must  get  to  the  heart  of  these 
great  American  cities,  because,  no  matter  what  you  do 
with  the  rest  of  the  country  ten  cities  will  sink  the 
country,  unless  they  are  evangelized,  far  beyond  the 
present. 

Whoever  stands  in  the  city  and  in  an  effective  fash- 
ion delivers  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ,  stands  at  the 
heart  of  the  world,  because  if  you  cannot  evangelize  the 
American  city,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  Calcutta, 


248  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

and  Hong  Kong,  at  long  range?  If  you  cannot  give  the 
Italian  who  comes  in  shoals  under  the  very  eaves  of  our 
churches  this  message  of  peace  to  which  he  will  gladly 
yield,  what  will  you  do  with  our  missions  in  Italy?  If 
you  cannot  give  a  square  deal  to  eleven  millions  black 
people  on  our  soil — more  than  there  are  in  Africa — 
what  is  to  be  the  future  in  Africa?  I  am  a  crank  on 
foreign  missions,  and  this  is  not  to  be  taken  as  an  in- 
vidious comparison,  but  the  time  has  come  when  we 
must  vindicate  the  spirit  and  power  of  our  Protestantism, 
because  the  whole  world  looks  on  to  see  what  it  is  doing 
at  home.  There  never  was  a  time  like  this.  Wonders 
can  be  accomplished,  when  the  church  shall  merely  come 
up  to  a  dollar  a  member,  or  a  postage  stamp  a  week. 
You  say  you  are  not  considering  any  such  picayune 
proposition  as  that!  Let  us  take  it  just  as  a  basis  of 
computation. 

Talking  about  the  resources  of  the  church,  makes 
me  think  of  Dr.  Luccock.  At  one  of  the  Kansas  con- 
ferences, a  brother  stood  up  and  introduced  Dr.  Luccock, 
not  realizing  what  might  follow.  Dr.  Luccock  re- 
marked :  ''Kansas  has  a  few  resources.  If  all  the  chick- 
ens raised  in  Kansas  were  one  rooster,  he  would  bestride 
the  mountains  like  a  colossus ;  his  crow  would  shake  the 
rings  off  Saturn !  If  all  the  hogs  were  one  hog,  with  one 
swoop  of  his  snout  he  would  dig  a  sea  level  canal  from 
ocean  to  ocean.  If  all  the  mules  raised  in  a  single  year 
were  one  mule,  that  mule  could  kick  out  the  back  end  of 
all  creation."     (Laughter.) 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  ^49 

When  you  talk  about  resources,  all  that  Methodism 
has  to  do,  is  to  lay  down  the  postage  stamp  a  week. 
You  say — that  is  not  worth  talking  about!  The  Lord 
help  us  up  to  that  level,  and  what  will  follow.  We  will 
double  the  appropriations,  wherever  needed,  on  the  long 
frontier;  and  instead  of  having  less  than  $60,000  a  year 
for  the  city  appropriation,  that  would  not  clean  up  one 
section  of  Manhattan  Island,  we  will  have  a  million  an^ 
a  half  dollars  appropriated  to  the  cities.  We  will  do 
that  every  year,  when  the  church  comes  up  to  a  nickel 
a  week,  on  the  average.  Will  anybody  go  without  a 
meal  of  vituals  to  do  that?  We  will  have  23/2  millions 
for  our  rural  work  and  five  millions  for  the  cities, 
$500,000  for  New  York  and  for  Chicago;  and  every 
city  in  proportion  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Meth- 
odism can  do  it  as  easily  as  that,  and  let  us  thank  God 
for  it. 

Then,  too,  we  will  take  this  into  consideration,  that 
Methodism  will  come  to  her  own,  only  as  she  realizes  the 
kingdom  of  the  Ljord  Jesus  Christ  in  this  world.  If  I 
look  back  into  the  New  Testament,  it  may  be  I  will 
notice  that  a  stake  is  being  driven  at  Antioch,  at  Corinth, 
at  Rome.  That  is  the  outline  of  the  great  Kingdom  of 
Christ.  Somebody  interrupts  and  says,  that  is  not  merely 
the  geography  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  that  is  also 
the  outline  of  the  enlargement  of  that  Kingdom  of  the 
mighty  pioneer,  the  Apostle.  He  realized  a  Kingdom 
commensurate  to  what  He  planted.     When  God  came 


250  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  to  John  Wesley,  and  saw  that  in  any 
one  of  such  he  had  a  steadfast  swivel  that  would  hold, 
and  on  which  he  could  turn  his  mighty  world  purpose, 
he  was  just  as  sure  of  all  the  race  to  follow  Abraham, 
of  the  bringing  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  present  status  of 
our  board  of  Methodism,  as  he  is  tonight,  because  He 
had  the  man  on  whom  He  could  lean! 

I  don't  know  to  whom  I  am  talking  tonight,  but 
this  forward  movement  is  near  to  this  great  uplift,  but 
I  am  talking  to  some  man  or  girl  who  in  the  silence  of 
the  home  will  realize  that  what  you  will,  you  may  do. 
Great  things  will  come  from  your  personal  resolves. 
Nine-tenths  of  all  the  money  for  missionary  purposes 
comes  from  one-tenth  of  the  church,  and  the  other  tenth 
comes  from  less  than  one-half  of  the  number  left.  In 
taking  a  concensus  of  opinion  to  know  what  was  the 
supreme  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  advance  of  the  King- 
dom, the  majority  answered — the  condition  of  the  work- 
ing church.  It  is  not  India,  it  is  not  the  cast  system,  not 
privation  to  be  endured,  things  to  be  learned.  We  come 
at  last  face  to  face  that  a  great  mountain,  and  its  roots 
are  in  the  church  where  you  and  I  worhsip,  and  the 
pastor  that  faces  today  the  average  American  congrega- 
tion— I  speak  it  in  the  spirit  of  love — is  in  the  heart  and 
center  of  the  most  needy  missionary  field  anywhere  on 
this  planet,  and  the  question  is  this:  shall  we  not  come 
to  our  own,  only  as  we  realize  in  ourselves  and  in  our 
churches  this  great  purpose. 


Responsibility  of  Board  of  Home  Missions  251 

I  heard  of  a  bridge  that  was  being  built  near  the 
City  of  Boston,  across  a  body  of  water  where  the  tide 
was  coming  in.  The  engineer,  in  the  foundation,  had 
gotten  down  to  an  old  watermain.  He  could  not  remove 
it.  On  the  bank  was  a  railway.  They  had  a  locomotive, 
tandem,  and  chains  around  it,  but  they  could  not  start 
it.  An  old  Scotchman  said,  'T  will  take  it  out  for  you." 
Everybody  laughed  when  they  saw  a  couple  of  old  mud- 
scows,  with  planks,  boards,  ropes  and  chains.  At  low 
tide  he  got  them  where  the  water  main  was,  put  beams 
between  the  two  mudscows,  and  fastened  the  ropes  and 
chains  securely.  He  went  and  sat  down  on  the  bank  and 
lighted  his  pipe.  Everybody  laughed.  In  half  an  hour 
they  began  to  get  the  idea.  The  mudscows  began  to  show 
signs  of  disturbance.  Soon  the  ropes  attached  to  the 
planks,  "smoked,"  and  people  said,  "Will  the  old  mud- 
scows hold?"  Then  out  came  the  water  main.  It  means 
this — if  I  will  take  myself  and  my  church  out  into  the 
eternal  current  of  the  tides  of  Almighty  God  and  anchor 
myself — (it  all  depends  on  the  anchorage,  you  must  be 
a  mudscow,  it  depends  on  your  anchorage),  God  will  lift 
us,  carry  us  out,  and  lift  this  world  with  us.  That  is 
God's  purpose.  America  for  Christ  and  the  world  for 
Christ.  I  think  you  will  say  with  me  tonight — I  am 
only  one,  but  I  am  one.  I  cannot  do  everything,  but  I 
can  do  something.  What  I  ought  to  do,  that  by  the 
grace  of  God,  I  will  do. 

(Music.) 


THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER. 

WM.   A.   QUAYLE^   D.   D.,   LL.D. 

It  would  not  be  polite  to  say,  of  so  nice  an  introd- 
ducer,  that  everything  he  said  was  not  so,  would  it? 

Well,  I  won't  speak  of  that  now.  Coker  is  a  nice 
man.  He  has  his  failings.  He  will  exaggerate. 
(Laughter.)  But  he  learned  that  mainly  down  at 
Philadelphia. 

It  is  lovely  to  be  with  you  folks.  You  look  nice  and 
you  doubtless  have  some  relation  to  your  looks.  It  is 
really  too  bad  to  stop  a  speech  such  as  we  were  listening 
to  tonight.  It  was  a  notable  speech,  by  a  very  notable 
man.  He  has  some  brains  around  him.  Brother  Piatt! 
I  don't  know  just  where  they  are  located  (laughter) ;  but 
they  are  located,  all  right.  Some  people  have  brains, 
but  they  are  dislocated. 

I  suppose  there  are  not  many  men  alive  that  like  to 
hear  themselves  talk.  Once  in  a  while  there  is  one.  I 
am  not.  I  love  to  hear  other  folks  talk  and  I  love  to 
hear  Brother  Piatt  talk.  He  has  got  something  to  say. 
I  wish  he  had  hustled  on  and  spent  the  time,  and  I  would 
have  said  Amen. 


1  he  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  253 

America  is  the  fascination  of  history.  There  never 
was  anything  like  it.  We  have  had  the  last  chance  at  the 
world.  It  is  a  big  chance.  You  know  nothing  seems  to 
me  to  be  so  wonderful  about  America  as  God  hiding  it 
so  long.  It  is  no  trouble  to  go  across  the  Atlantic.  I 
have  done  in  myself  for  instance  (laughter).  If  you 
have  got  funds  you  can  get  across  very  quickly — if  not 
you  can  swim  across.     (Laughter.) 

When  I  lived  in  Chicago,  I  used  to  go  out  to  see 
the  reproduction  of  the  ship  in  which  Columbus  crossed 
the  pond,  and  really  it  was  not  a  very  big  boat;  but  it 
was  bigger  than  necessary.  Some  of  the  other  vessels 
that  came  with  him  were  not  so  large.  When  the  At- 
lantic is  quiet  there  is  no  trouble  at  all.  Any  light  thing 
can  swim  it.  I  have.  (Laughter.)  The  wonder  to  me 
is  not  that  Columbus  came  across,  but  that  they  had  not 
been  doing  that  little  trick  for  hundreds  of  years.  They 
do  say  in  American  history  that  some  of  the  Vikings 
did  come  across,  but  they  do  not  seem  to  recollect  just 
who  they  were.  May  be  they  were  dead  before  the  his- 
torian arose.  I  don't  know  how  that  is,  but  I  have  been 
up  to  Newport  visiting  the  Vanderbilts  (laughter),  and 
I  have  seen  the  structure  they  say  the  Vikings  built. 
It  is  up  at  Newport  News.  But  all  of  that  sort  of  thing 
is  really  persiflage.  There  is  nothing  involved  in  it.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  who  got  across  first,  but  who  taught 
the  rest  of  us  how  to  get  across.  It  seems  to  me  pitifully 
trivial,  to  argue  the  point  whether  Columbus  was  the  first 


254  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

man  to  come  across.  Who  cares  who  came  across  first. 
The  Vikings  left  no  track.  That  is  the  trouble  with 
them,  they  did  not  ridge  the  ocean  into  a  roadway. 
Columbus  came  across  and  left  an  ocean  track  and  any- 
body can  sail  it  now.  The  marvel  is  not  the  discovery 
of  America  but  its  non-discovery.  Why  didn't  we  know 
about  it  sooner?  Were  not  those  Vikings  grave?  Did 
they  not  care  for  the  adventurous  deep,  with  the  billows 
that  rise  and  crusted  with  foam,  breaking  like  a  hun- 
dred avalanches?  Did  that  intimidate  them?  Why 
didn't  they  come  across  and  teach  the  world  the  way  ?  I 
have  a  notion  that  that  is  a  secret  of  God.  I  think  that 
God  was  keeping  this  vast  world  on  which  he  meant  to 
build  the  future  of  mankind,  keeping  it  back  until  he 
grew  a  race  of  people  who  are  fitted  to  sail  the  great 
ocean  and  there  develop  a  new  civilization  in  the  un- 
known world.  We  found  America.  It  was  found  in  the 
days  when  the  world  was  growing  strangely  alert,  when 
men  were  beginning  to  yearn  for  real  freedom.  Then, 
and  only  then,  was  a  highway  built  across  the  mighty 
ocean  and  new  world  was  established  for  freedom  of  re- 
ligion and  of  citizenship.  God  hid  it.  We  hear  some- 
times about  God  hiding  things  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 
I  think  the  reason  America  was  not  discovered  sooner 
was  because  God's  hand  was  down  with  the  palm  over 
America  and  they  could  not  see  it.  When  the  day  came 
and  the  world  had  developed  sufficiently,  then  God  lifted 
his  hand,  Columbus  saw  the  vision,  sailed  the  seas  and 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  2t^^ 

cried,  "There  is  the  land."  What  God  needed  was  a 
land  to  which  he  could  transport  people  that  had  drunk 
the  draft  of  freedom.  God  needed  a  place  where  imperial 
democracy  could  once  more  lift  up  its  face  and 
drink  in  the  starlight  of  the  dawn  of  a  new  era. 
That  is  what  God  needed,  a  new  chance  for 
men,  a  new  world  where  he  could  set  his  looms  up  and 
see  what  man  could  weave.  He  hid  this  land  until  then. 
Otherwise  you  cannot  explain  it.  Ships  had  been  big 
enough  for  a  long  time.  There  was  no  reason  why  in- 
trepid sailors  could  not  go  across  the  ocean.  They  never 
really  got  out  of  sight  of  land.  Why  didn't  they?  God 
was  hiding  this.  We  did  not  need  a  new  Rome  and 
Caesar  here.  We  did  not  need  a  new  dynasty  of  vio- 
lence and  might  under  the  mask  of  law.  What  we  need 
in  America  was  reorganization  of  the  relations  of  man- 
kind. Here  was  the  fact — the  time  came  and  this  Christo- 
pher Columbo,  speaking  as  if  I  was  a  learned  man,  which 
I  am  not — Christopher  Columbus,  speaking  as  a  plebian, 
which  I  am,  drew  a  map  by  wetting  on  his  finger,  and 
said  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  "That  is  how  it  looks 
like."  He  wet  his  finger  again  because  the  line  was  dry- 
ing out,  "That  is  what  it  looks  like."  It  took  fifty  to 
one  hundred  years  to  get  them  to  see  what  it  really 
looked  like.  Not  afraid  to  undertake  the  task,  Martin 
Luther,  mountain  bred,  wrote  out  a  declaration  of  in- 
dependence for  the  human  soul.  He  was  a  preacher 
and  he  said,  "There  is  nobody  betwixt  a  man  and  his 


^56  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

God."  You  say  that  everybody  knows  that.  Well,  every- 
body knows  a  lot  of  things  now.  They  did  not  know 
for  a  long  time  that  water  is  H2O.  I  do  not  care  much 
what  water  is,  it  is  wet  and  I  want  it.  The  common- 
places of  the  world  are  the  strategies  and  discoveries  of 
genius.  We  all  say  now,  'There  is  nobody  between  a 
man  and  God."  Who  found  that  out?  Jesus  found  that 
out  and  told  it,  but  somehow  people  did  not  harken,  and 
they  believed  there  was  a  priesthood  between  man  and 
God.  They  looked  and  they  could  not  see  God.  The 
priests  were  too  fat  and  the  people  could  not  see  God. 
They  said,  'There  is  a  church  between  man  and  God." 
The  church  was  a  cathedral  with  great  walls  and  gloomy 
interior  and  it  reached  high  into  the  heavens,  but  they 
could  not  see  God.  Martin  Luther  pushed  the  priest- 
hood and  the  church  aside.  He  said,  **I  do  declare  it  is  a 
clear  sky  and  never  a  cloud  and  I  see  God."  That  is 
what  he  said,  'T  see  God."  They  said,  "You  don't." 
He  said,  "O,  I  see  Giod."  When  he  got  so  he  could  see 
God  himself  then  here  was  a  new  country  and  plenty  of 
folks  who  had  seen  God  said,  'T  guess  we  will  go  out 
yonder  where  there  is  plenty  of  room  and  lots  of  sky 
and  look  at  God."  That  is  the  way  it  was.  They  came 
out  here  to  populate  this  world.  I  wish  I  had  belonged 
back  then.  A  red-headed  man  in  the  frontier  days  had 
plenty  of  room  for  his  activities.  If  I  had  lived  in  those 
days  I  would  not  have  been  speaking  in  meetings.  I 
would  have  been  running  ships  with  my  ancestors  across 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  257 

the  mid-Atlantic  and  landing  the  boat  on  the  beaches  of 
Hberty  and  jumping  out  to  see  what  the  interior  looked 
like.  Here  was  a  new  world  and  here  were  a  people  who 
said,  ''I  see  God."  What  a  glorious  thing  it  was,  men 
and  women,  that  you  had  a  new  continent  where  the 
folks  had  said  that  liberty  could  come  and  they  settled 
down  and  began  to  keep  house.  The  fellow  that  dis- 
covered this  country  came  from  the  south  of  Europe.  He 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  Italy.  He  was  a  Spaniard 
by  location  and  then  he  was  an  American  by  immigra- 
tion, thank  God.     That  is  what  he  was. 

Ponce  de  Leon  came  over  and  said,  **There  is  a 
water  over  here.  If  you  drink  of  it  and  bathe  in  it  you 
will  be  young  forever."  The  womon  all  wanted  to  come 
over  and  get  in  that  spring.  A  lot  of  them  said,  ''You 
go  and  hunt  that  thing  up."  In  these  days  you  do  not 
need  a  spring  like  that.  You  go  to  the  drug  store  and 
have  it  put  up  in  bottles.  The  Spaniards  took  the  beau- 
tiful part  of  America  and  they  came  backing  up  the 
Mississippi  river.  They  went  into  Texas,  where  I  am 
now.  They  came  to  Kansas,  where  I  was  brought  up. 
When  they  came  there  and  saw  nothing  but  hay,  nothing 
sticking  up  higher  out  of  the  ground,  they  said,  "Not 
much."  Do  you  observe,  brothers,  that  in  the  provi- 
dence of  the  Almighty  God  the  fact  remains,  no  matter 
how  you  account  for  it — I  account  for  it  by  providence 
— that  these  people  that  discovered  America  did  not  in- 
undate America  with  their  civilization  but  the  people  of 


258  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  free  faith,  with  their  inspired  faces  like  a  thousand 
morning  lights  of  summer,  who  said,  "I  see  God" — they 
came  up  here  and  they  seized  this  great  arable  America 
for  the  Lord  jesus  Christ.  They  came  up  here  and  laid 
hold  of  this  country  for  the  Son  of  God  and  you  can 
say  what  you  like,  those  Puritan  brothers  had  quite  a 
ship  but  I  don't  think  they  had  as  many  descendants  as 
the  descendants  let  on.  That  is  my  judgment.  I  think  a 
whole  lot  of  those  alleged  Puritans  did  not  come  over  in 
that  boat.  I  think  there  is  some  mixup  on  that.  But 
never  mind,  the  boat  was  well  laden.  What  was  in  it? 
You  say  "Magna  Charta."  No,  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the 
school  house,  the  preacher,  the  open  Bible,  and  the  sense 
that  God  had  to  be  reckoned  with.  That  was  what  was 
in  the  boat. 

It  is  the  things  we  do  and  the  things  we  believe  in, 
that  count.  God  doesn't  care  much  how  a  man,  or  a 
preacher,  dresses,  but  he  cares  how  he  behaves.  God 
puts  the  preacher  on  the  road  that  leads  to  Him,  and  the 
preacher's  duty  along  that  road  is  to  save  you.  The 
parson  came  to  this  land,  and  in  his  hands  he  had  a  book. 
He  said,  'The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die."  That  is 
kind  of  drastic,  isn't  it  ?  Most  folks  don't  like  that  kind 
of  talk.  It  is  not  very  refreshing  talk,  but  it  is  God's 
talk,  and  people  better  listen  to  it. 

And  so  the  boat  came  over  here,  and  this  land,  hid- 
den so   long,   had   its   baptism   at  the    hand    of   God. 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  259 

Brothers,  this  America  of  ours  had  no  common  start,  no 
common  patronage.  Its  destinies  were  watched  over. 
When  no  longer  hidden  by  God,  to  this  new  land  came 
the  Huguenots,  Swedish,  Dutch  Protestant  and  the  Puri- 
tan Protestants.  With  united  destinies,  they  began  to 
settle  up  a  new  world  for  God.  It  is  the  only  world  that 
ever  had  been  settled  for  God  up  to  now.  Doesn't  that 
make  you  proud?  Doesn't  it  make  your  heart  sing? 
Does  it  make  you  rejoice?  We  settled  up  America  for 
God.  O,  that  was  a  day  of  days  when  it  began  to  be, 
and  then  here  we  were,  such  a  long  way  off!^ — and  the 
Britishers  were  just  a  little  bit  timid  of  the  water. 
Brother  Coker  got  across  the  water  because  he  is  so  dry 
he  could  not  be  troubled  with  the  damp.  You  know 
the  English  brethren  are  fearful  of  the  water.  The 
Englishmen  are  afraid  of  water.  Only  a  few 
came  over  first.  Just  a  few  more  kept  coming  over. 
Those  who  arrived  had  children.  They  did  not 
need  any  Roosevelt  suggestions  those  days.  A  few 
more  kept  coming  over.  The  ocean  was  so  wide  and 
so  wet  it  was  a  long  way  across,  and  rather  dangerous. 
So  America  was  let  alone  with  the  parson  and  the  Bible 
and  the  public  school  and  the  west  wind.  The  people 
in  the  new  land  climbed  the  Alleghenies  and  they  could 
not  see  any  water  to  the  west,  and  they  said,  "Don't 
that  beat  all!"  You  can't  climb  anything  in  England 
but  what  you  see  water,  it  is  such  a  little  place,  you 
know.     Here  they  were,  and  here  was  the  parson  and 


26o  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

the  open  Bible,  the  public  school,  and  here  the  illimit- 
able landscape.  They  put  their  back  against  a  moun- 
tain range  and  looked  out  to  sea  when  the  fogs  were 
not  too  thick.  They  said,  'It's  a  long  way  across  the 
water."  They  got  feeling  frisky  about  it.  First  they 
talked  all  the  time  about  the  old  home  land.  They 
named  all  their  places  English  names.  Then  when  they 
felt  a  little  at  home  they  called  them  Indian  names. 
When  they  got  on  the  mountain  and  looked  westward 
there  was  no  sea.  The  west  wind  came,  they  knew  not 
whence,  nor  how  far.  Pretty  soon  (everything  is 
"pretty  soon"  to  God,  and  so  we  won't  be  precise  about 
a  few  hundred  years),  these  folks  said,  *T  think  we 
can  possibly  boss  ourselves!"  The  king  said,  'T  can 
rule  you."  They  said,  'Thankyouvery  much,  we  can  rule 
ourselves."  That  was  heresay.  What  made  it?  Answer: 
The  sea  was  so  wide,  and  the  king  was  so  far  across, 
you  could  not  see  him,  you  could  only  hear  him  once  in 
a  while,  and  his  talk  did  not  sound  so  big  when  you  could 
not  see  the  megaphone  through  which  it  came.  The 
folks  were  so  used  to  looking  after  themselves,  cutting 
the  forests  down,  building  cabins,  contending  with  wild 
beasts,  and  when  the  Barbarian  came  sneaking  through 
the  trees,  leaning  one  arm  over  the  cradle,  thrusting  the 
gun  out  and  remarking,  ''Better  stay  off  tonight,  baby  is 
asleep  and  wife  is  tired" — after  a  century  of  becoming 
afraid  of  savages  or  wild  beasts,  they  became  tired  of 
having  a  little  codger,  across  a  thousand  miles  of  water, 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  261 

saying,  "I  will  protect  you."  They  said,  ''No,  thank 
you."  Had  it  been  just  a  little  stream  between,  we 
could  not  have  got  along  so  well.  What  I  want  to  put 
before  our  thought  tonight  is,  these  matters  seen  under 
the  prophecies  of  God,  show  that  we  were  sent  to  go 
housekeeping  for  ourselves,  to  develop  a  new  social_ or- 
der her.  We  were  not  an  arm  with  a  body,  we  were  a 
body  with  an  arm.  The  people  here  thought  they  were 
capable  of  looking  after  their  own  matters  and  writing 
a  Magna  Charta  of  their  own.  Think  of  that!  When 
the  old  English  Magna  Charta  was  written,  it  was  by 
barons  and  dignitaries.  The  common  man  hadn't  a 
thing  to  do  with  it.  The  barons  said,  in  the  Magna 
Charta,  to  King  John,  you  cannot  do  it  in  your  way  any 
more.  I  forget  the  rest,  it  is  not  written  in  good  Amer- 
ican. In  effect  that  is  what  they  said — you  cannot  do 
it  that  way  any  more.  But  they  were  barons,  they  had 
their  underlings  and  they  stood  up,  face  to  face,  and 
said,  ''You  cannot  do  that  way  any  more  to  us" — that 
is,  "to  us  barons." 

Did  they  care  what  the  king  did  to  the  serf,  and 
the  scullion,  the  swine-herd,  and  the  digger  in  the  soil? 
They  did  not. 

The  people  over  here  had  been  so  long  away  from 
a  king,  that  they  did  not  know  what  one  looked  like. 
They  had  not  seen  enough  barons  to  trouble  their  eye- 
sight any.  They  said,  "Let  us  try  ruling,  a  spell,  our- 
selves, and  see  what  we  can  do."     So  those  fellows  got 


262  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

out  ail  old  sword  that  had  been  lying  around  the  house 
a  longi  while,  that  they  used  once  in  a  while  when  they 
had  to.  Dipping  it  in  blood,  they  wrote  the  first  Magna 
Charta  of  their  race,  covering  all  ranks,  and  they  called 
it  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  was  written  for 
the  ordinary  man.  It  was  not  written  by  a  baron,  it 
was  written  by  a  Democrat.  Now,  what  do  you  think 
of  that?  Written  by  red-headed  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Democrat.  Who  >vas  he?  A  man  who  stood  for  the 
uncommon  dignity  of  the  common  man.  I  leave  it  to 
you  to  answer.  It  was  worth  God  concealing  two  con- 
tinents for  a  thousand  years,  and  worth  digging  an 
ocean  3,000  miles  wide  to  keep  intruders  out,  and  wait- 
ing until  there  came  the  parson  and  the  book,  and  the 
schoolhouse,  to  meet  the  west  wind's  breath.  It  was 
worth  it,  to  have  a  Magna  Charta,  written  for  the  or- 
dinary man.  They  said,  ''We  are  all  barons  over  here," 
and  King  George  did  not  believe  it.  He  was  a  Mis- 
sourian  and  they  "showed"  him. 

Now,  then,  what  followed  that?  Why,  this  fol- 
lowed that:  We  are  getting  ourselves  ready.  Ready 
for  what?  Answer:  Ready  to  hear  God  and  mind 
Him.  That  is  what  we  were  getting  ready  for.  Get- 
ting ready,  and  the  providence  of  God  was  with  us,  and 
the  providence  of  God  championed  our  armies,  and  put 
pillars  of  cloud  and  fire  as  we  needed  thqm  and  when 
we  needed  them.  We  were  getting  ready.  For  what? 
America!     Providence!     Now,  men  and  women,  Amer- 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  263 

ica  has  a  providence  of  God,  to  stand  on  its  own  feet, 
to  resist  foreign  intrusion.  You  know  that  funny  doc- 
trine called  the  Monroe  doctrine,  that  John  Quincy 
Adams  thought  up  and  wrote  down.  That  is  who 
thought  that  up  and  wrote  it  down.  What  does  it 
mean?  It  means,  "You  folks  keep  off."  That  is  what 
it  means.  It  says,  "Foreigners  can't  do  business  in  this 
country  as  foreign  potentates."  One  time  when  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  of  blessed  memory,  was  pretty  busy  doing 
things  at  home,  France  thought,  "Here  is  a  good  time 
to  sneak  in."  It  sneaked  in  and  it  sneaked  out,  but  it 
left  a  dead  king  here.  We  were  not  so  busy  with  our 
own  domestic  infelicity  and  spanking  our  own  young 
ones  that  we  could  not  see  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
had  time  to  do  business.  We  kept  them  out.  These 
two  continents  are  going*  to  be  preserved  for  "whom 
it  may  concern,"  and  from  whom  it  don't  concern, 
moreover. 

Now,  men  and  women,  I  call  to  you  to  consider 
that  it  is  no  less  essential  that  America  should  be  pre- 
served to  political  independence  than  that  it  should  be 
preserved  to  and  have  religious  supremacy  and  inde- 
pendence. We  are  not  in  any  condition  to  let  a  foreign 
ruler  rule  over  us,  neither  are  we  in  any  condition  to 
let  a  foreign  ecclesiastical  potentate  rule  over  us.  We 
are  Methodists.  Consider  this,  brothers  and  sisters, 
that  America  is  the  only  place  where  the  church  has 
taken  its  chance,  since  Pentecost.     The  only  place.     In 


264  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

Europe  they  have  had  the  theory  the  church  had  to  be 
nursed  on  the  bottle,  and  they  have  had  a  state  church. 
I  am  not  complaining  about  it;  I  am  just  talking  about 
it.  They  have  a  state  church  in  England,  and  another 
state  church  in  Scotland — isn't  that  funny? — one  king- 
dom, and  two  different  kinds  of  state  churches,  one 
Presbyterian  and  another  Episcopalian.  In  Sweden 
they  have  a  state  church,  and  in  Germany.  In  this 
country  the  parson  with  his  book  called  the  Bible,  and 
his  school  house,  and  the  west  wind  blowing  in  his  face, 
said,  "I  rather  think,  brothers  and  sisters,  that  the 
church  can  stand  alone.  Let's  give  it  a  trial."  That 
■was  a  discovery  like  the  Reformation,  wasn't  it?  We 
tried  and  succeeded,  thank  God,  and  the  church  is  stand- 
ing alone.  Every  once  in  a  while  you  fall  in  with  some 
kind  of  ecclesiastical  booby,  who  gets  worried  and 
scared.  He  gets  into  hysterics  and  says,  "My  brethren, 
the  church's  best  days  are  past.  We  are  now  come  to 
where  the  church  has  arrived  at  a  state  of  decay."  He 
weeps  some,  but  his  tears  are  not  worth  bottling,  so  the 
Lord  does  not  bottle  them.  The  Lord  would  not  fool 
away  a  tear  bottle  on  that  kind  of  weep.  Brothers, 
when  I  hear  that  kind  of  talk  I  am  amused.  I  will  tell 
you  why — ^because  every  church — this  building — gives 
it  the  lie.  Who  is  building  these  churches?  Every- 
body is  building  them.  Who  is  protecting  them? 
God  is. 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  265 

Is  the  government  giving  us  subsidies  ?  We  do  not 
want  government  subsidies.  We  want  God's  chance, 
and  that  is  all.  This  is  the  only  place  where  the  church 
has  taken  its  chance,  and  risked  all  on  its  merits,  and 
the  church  has  succeeded  more  here  than  any  place  on 
earth,  thank  God !  We  ask  nobody  to  pay  our  preachers 
for  us.  You  know,  if  I  was  not  an  humble  man,  I  would 
get  proud  once  in  a  while.  I  noticed  when  they  said 
how  many  millions  were  given  for  missions  in  the 
world,  that  America  gave  most  of  it.  Then  I  got  proud. 
It  is  a  modern  miracle,  that  a  free  church,  with  no  gov- 
ernmental support,  has  achieved  a  success  never 
achieved  by  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  until  now.  Think 
of  that! 

I  ask  you  to  answer  me,  whether  it  was  not  worth 
while  for  God  to  keep  hidden  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand, 
a  world  where  we  could  try  that  matter  out?  I  never 
hear  the  moan  of  the  heart-ache  in  foreign  lands,  I 
never  hear  the  rumble  of  the  voices  of  Russian 
peasantry,  but  what  I  thank  God  America  is  showing 
them  the  way.  *'What  ails  those  people?"  America 
ails  them.  Think  of  Portugal  wanting  a  president? 
My  God!  About  as  wide  as  your  finger  at  the  end, 
and  they  are  environed  by  kings.  They  want  a  presi- 
dent. Who  taught  them  that?  America  taught  them 
that.  Who  teaches  despotism  that  it  better  mitigate 
its  tyranny?  America  does.  I  never  forget  that  once 
when  I  was  going  abroad — the  less  frequently  you  have 


266  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

been  abroad  the  more  you  must  refer  to  it — I  saw  a 
woman  put  back,  on  her  ship,  a  woman  with  dark  hair, 
and  a  dark  face,  and  eyes  that  seemed  to  be  all  tears, 
a  face  out  of  which  laughter  seemed  to  have  died  so 
long  ago  it  was  not  even  a  memory.     She  was  a  woman 
from  Italy.     She  beat  her  head  against  the  irons  of  the 
ship  and  cried  as  though  her  life  were  desolate.     What 
was  the  story?    She  was  a  pauper.     They  were  sending 
her  back  home  and  there  she  was,  beating  her  forehead, 
because  her  dream  was  shattered.     She  thought  she  was 
coming  into  a  new  world.     Now  they  were  thrusting 
her  back  to  the  old  world.    Men  and  women,  I  want  you 
to  answer  me.    Wasn't  it  worth  going  through  the  toils 
of  God  and  man  and  the  battles    of    the  Revolutionary 
fathers?     Wasn't  it  worth    while    going    through    the 
battering  ram  days  of  the  world  of  the  rebellion,   to 
create  a  land,  the  presence  of  which  even    in    dreams, 
made  people  think  that  Heaven  was  on  earth.     That  is 
America.     Now,  my  point  is,  we  must  keep  it  for  the 
thing  il  was  put  here  for.    We  must  keep  the  Bible  book 
open.     We  must  keep  the  school  house  open.     You  say 
what  has  the  church  to  do  with  the  school  house  ?    Well, 
you  know  I  am  just  a  simple  minister  and  I  could  not 
argue,  but  inasmuch  as  the  Bible  invented  the  school 
house,   I  think  the  Bible  will  have  to  stay  around  to 
keep  the  school  house  going.     Or,  I  will  put  it  this  way. 
You  know  I  am  an  American.     My  father  was  a  for- 
eigner, my  mother  was  a  foreigner.    I  am  an  American. 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  267 

I  believe  in  the  public  school  with  such  passion  that 
sometimes  I  get  a  little  ashamed  of  it,  for  fear  I  might 
brag  on  it  when  I  was  not  noticing  it.  But  I  will  tell 
you  this,  men  and  women,  with  my  American  fealty, 
and  my  devotion  to  this  country's  institutions,  I  will 
speak  not  as  a  minister,  but  rather  as  a  man  and  Amer- 
ican citizen,  that  if  you  take  the  sublime  moralities  of 
Christianity  out  of  the  public  schools  they  are  not  worth 
keeping  open.  You  say,  "Why,  that  is  extravagant," 
but  you  know  it  is  not,  when  you  review  the  whole  sit- 
uation. What  we  need  now  is  not  to  make  people  in- 
telligent, so  much  as  to  make  people  morally  competent 
to  use  their  intelligence  to  good  ends.  A  bad  man  who 
has  cleverness  can  do  more  harm  than  a  dozen  of  his 
kind  who  have  less  education.  Bancroft  Libmy 

I  have  grown  up  with  this  doctrine  pounded  into 
me — "We  must  educate  or  perish."  I  read  that  some- 
where, once.  When  you  get  so  you  can  read,  there 
is  no  telling  what  you  will  read.  "We  will  educate  or 
we  will  perish,"  but  I  declare  to  you  that  education  will 
not  keep  us  from  perishing.  It  is  morality  we  need,  be- 
hind arithmetic.  Lots  of  people  can  figure  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  but  people  sometimes  try  to  figure  that 
two  times  three  of  the  other  fellow's  make  twenty-four 
of  ours.  A  foreign  man  was  selling  plums,  and  was 
asked,  "How  many  for  ten  cents?"  "Eight."  "Here 
is  ten  cents."  Thinking  I  did  not  notice,  he  put  in  six. 
I  did  not  let  on,  I  just  wanted  to  see  how  many  he 


268  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

would  steal  when  I  did  not  look  on.  Didn't  he  know 
how  to  count?  Yes.  Did  he  think  two  multiplied  by 
four  was  six?  No.  What  made  him  do  it?  Answer: 
He  was  a  thief.  Don't  young  fellows  know  that  a  car 
ride  costs  a  nickel?  Yes.  Do  they  think  it  is  worth  a 
nickel?  Presumably  they  do  for  they  would  not  ride. 
Why  do  you  have  to  pay  as  you  enter  cars,  built  to 
prevent  the  young  thief  or  the  old  bald-headed  thief,  or 
the  dressed-up  thief  with  the  fine  hat,  from  stealing 
rides.  If  they  had  all  been  honest  as  I  was,  you  could 
all  run  and  jump  on  the  front  end.  Didn't  we  know  we 
ought  to  be?  Yes,  but  we  were  dishonest.  Personally 
I  never  preferred  to  steal  a  nickel.  It  seemed  to  me  too 
small,  but  there  are  plenty  of  small  people  who  would. 
My  proposition  is,  it  is  morality  which  makes  intellect- 
uality useful  and  safe. 

You  know  that  Francis  Bacon  invented  the  refrig- 
erator car  when  he  was  not  busy  one  day.  He  found 
out  that  cold  would  prevent  putrefaction.  Everybody 
knows  now.  That  is  a  very  great  contribution  to  mod- 
ern life.  You  can  take  a  frozen  chicken  across  a  con- 
tinent and  it  is  all  right  as  long  as  you  keep  it 
freezing,  but  as  soon  as  you  thaw  it  out,  a  Methodist 
minister  will  smell  it  out  and  where  will  that  chicken  go? 
We  must  discover  something  that  will  prevent  morals 
from  putrefying.  What  is  it?  It  is  Giodliness.  We 
must  preserve  the  institutions  we  have  received  for  peo- 
ple who  shall  not  be  born  for  a  thousand  years. 


The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  269 

Shall  America  be  kept  alive,  for  its  great  services 
for  human  kind?  Everybody  says,  "yes."  If  we  are 
to  retain  America,  as  we  have  had  it,  we  must  keep  it 
religious  and  we  will,  bless  God,  and  we  will  put  money 
into  it.  Bless  all  true  workers  to  this  end.  Please 
God,  keep  America  religious. 

A  man  wrote  me  the  other  day  from  New  York. 
In  New  England  they  say  that  *'New  York"  is  *'out 
West,"  and  they  think  Oklahoma  is  ''West."  I  regard 
Oklahoma  as  being  half  way.  You  go  out  and  sit  down 
a  spell  when  you  get  that  far,  because  you  are  tired  then, 
and  go  on  the  rest  of  the  way.  The  man  wrote  to  me 
form  New  York.  I  didn't  know  him  at  all.  He  did  me 
the  honor  to  write  me  a  note.  He  said,  "What  did  I 
mean  when  I  said  that  America  was  for  Americans." 
You  know  I  always  know  what  I  mean.  I  differ  from 
some  in  that  regard.  I  said  to  him  (with  the  type- 
writer), I  mean  that  this  American  civilization  is  so 
new,  distinct  and  dissimilar,  that  folks  that  don't  want 
it  better  not  come  over.  This  civilization  is  for  people 
that  like  it.  If  we  are  going  to  keep  America,  let  the 
church  of  God  get  up  and  do  business.  If  you  believe 
in  America,  do  business.  You  say,  what  has  this  got  to 
do  with  religion?  What  has  religion  got  to  do  with 
this?  It  has  all  to  do  with  it.  We  must  keep  busy  or 
America  will  lose  its  place  among  the  constellations  of 
the  world.  Because  I  love  America,  I  want  America 
to  be  God-like.     Because  I  believe  in  America,  I  believe 


270  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resour-ces 

in  Christianity,  and  I  do  know  this,  that  after  all  the 
talk  is  over,  and  after  all  the  volley  of  words  has  vented 
itself  on  the  air,  and  died  away  like  the  distant  sum- 
mons of  thunder  in  a  summer  storm^  that  if  America 
is  not  a  Christian  civilization  it  will  be  no  civilization 
at  all.  I  mean  to  say,  it  could  have  been  produced  by 
no  methods  and  it  could  have  been  grown  under  no 
auspices  but  the  auspices  of  Christianity,  and  we  people 
are  honor  bound  to  the  future  and  we  are  love  bound 
to  God,  to  keep  this  America,  that  God  has  kept  to  this 
time,  for  a  million  years  hereafter,  so  it  can  hold  up  it? 
torch,  and  the  broken  hearted  and  broken  spirited  across 
the  *world  can  see  it.  We  have  got  to  do  this  thing  or 
America  will  go  to  naught — and  I  think  we  are  going 
to  do  it. 

I  was  over  to  New  York  one  time  on  Sunday  and 
most  of  the  stores  were  closed.  That  is  worth  re- 
membering. Most  of  the  stores  in  Chicago  are  closed 
on  Sunday — not  most  of  the  saloons,  but  I  will  tell  you 
this — that  unless  Chicago  learns  that  the  State  of  Il- 
linois has  outgrown  the  village  of  Chicago,  the  State  of 
Illinois  will  be  ground  to  powder  between  their  fingers, 
in  the  years  to  come.  City's  rights  in  a  great  city  is  a 
principle  no  better  than  state  rights  in  the  South.  It  is 
wrong  everywhere.  Chicago  must  obey  the  State  of 
Illinois.  But  you  know,  as  you  go  through  the  land, 
some  how  or  other,  lots  of  people  don't  go  to  church. 
I  drive  around  in  Oklahoma  a  good  deal  in  an  open 


1  he  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  271 

buggy,  and  go  in  an  automobile  when  I  find  a  foolish 
man  who  will  drive  me  around.  I  find  a  lot  of  people 
that  are  not  getting  out  to  hear  me  preach,  that  are  not 
very  intelligent.  (Laughter.)  I  will  tell  you  what  I 
find.  Most  of  them  are  at  home  on  Sunday,  sitting  on 
the  front  step.  Did  I  get  mad  because  they  were  not 
going  to  hear  me  preach?  No,  I  just  thanked  God  that 
though  they  were  not  going  to  the  Gospel  house,  the 
Gospel  house  had  given  them  a  day  to  rest  up.  The 
plow  was  loose  in  the  field,  the  horse  in  the  pasture,  the 
man  was  with  the  children  on  the  porch.  He  was  not 
even  spanking  the  children.  He  was  taking  the  day  off 
to  rest,  so  he  could  begin  early  the  next  morning.  Was 
it  worth  while? 

It  is  worth  while.  Christianity  is  doing  business 
in  America,  as  you  all  know  who  have  the  penetration 
to  perceive  our  growth.  If  the  Bible  is  not  taught  in  the 
public  schools,  we  must  do  the  more  teaching  in  Sunday 
schools  and  pulpits,  and  go  from  house  to  house,  spread- 
ing the  Gospel,  with  all  its  wonderful  height  and  depth 
and  width. 

The  church  is  doing  most  of  the  work  of  the  police. 
Our  cities  could  afford  to  take  up  a  collection  and  pay 
the  preachers.  They  wont  do  it  you  know  but  they 
could  afford  to  do  it  mighty  well.  The  preachers  are 
releasing  the  city  from  paying  lots  of  policemen.  If  the 
preachers  and  churches  were  not  around  you  would 
have  to  have  lots  more  policemen.     We  must  in  the 


272  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

church  of  God,  keep  patriotism  aUve,  so  that  America 
against  all  days  shall  do  the  thing  that  America  only 
can  do. 

O,  America,  I  love  thee.  O,  America,  I  have  seen 
thy  name  in  my  dreams  and  in  my  waking.  I  hear  the 
happy  voices  call.  O,  America,  wake  them,  America, 
and  lead  them  to  thy  Christ.  If  America  will  do  that, 
it  will  live  forever.  I  hope  that  America  will  be  here 
to  answer  the  roll  call. 

I  hope  that  America  will  be  heard  to  answer  the 
roll  call.  I  rather  think  it  will.  We  must  admit  there 
are  other  good  people.  We  are  engaged  in  the  com- 
mon cause,  of  keeping  America  alive,  so  that  America 
may  keep  the  world  alive,  and  we  must  not  forget  what 
Dr. Piatt  has  said,  that  the  world  is  looking  at  us  and  lis- 
tening to  us,  and-  waiting  for  us  as  it  never  did  before, 
and  we  must  be  good.  In  order  to  be  good,  we  must  be 
converted,  and  in  order  to  stay  good,  we  have  to  stay 
converted.  God  keep  this  country  good.  Along  the 
two  highways  of  our  commerce,  are  ships  whose  seams 
have  not  been  kept  calked.  They  leak.  A  leaky  vessel 
will  not  carry  freight  or  passengers.  O,  America!  If 
you  start  forgetting  the  God  that  grew  you,  that  builded 
you,  that  led  you,  that  blesses  you — O,  America !  instead 
of  sailing  the  seas  forever,  answering  to  the  breath  of 
the  wind,  and  the  conqueror  of  the  beckoning  waves, 
you  will  be  in  some  shore  shallows,  where  vampires  of 
national  dissolution  keep  national  graves  filling  forever. 


1  he  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter  273 

God  Almighty  help  us,  and  God  almighty  show  us,  that 
when  we  are  "passing  the  hat"  for  the  church  of  GoU 
we  are  lifting  up  the  banner,  and  we  won't  let  it  fall. 
We  are  keeping  this  America  of  ours,  please  God, 
against  all  perils,  for  the  unborn  generations  yet  to 
come. 

Dr.  Coker:  This  is  a  man's  job,  as  somebody 
has  said,  requiring  soul,  heart  and  body.  It  needs  the 
Christian  man's  effort.  Without  that  we  must  fail.  We 
must  and  we  will  succeed.  We  have  more  light  than 
yesterday.  We  have  seen  visions  and  dreamed  dreams. 
Our  hearts  have  been  opened  and  our  intellects  stirred. 
What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it  ?  In  the  name  of  God, 
I  ask  you.  Are  we  going  to  grind  at  the  same  rate? 
Are  we  going  to  yield  about  the  same  amount  of  grist? 
Or  are  we  going  to  put  ourselves,  with  all  our  hearts 
and  souls,  under  this  mighty  burden  and  help  Christ  to 
lift  this  world.  Brothers,  I  plead  with  you  tonight,  that 
there  may  come  upon  you  the  holy  spirit,  in  all  earnest- 
ness and  power,  in  a  mighty  revival  time,  such  as  shall 
sweep  this  land  of  ours,  and  make  your  mighty  state 
incorruptible,  politically  and  socially.  Not  longer  to  tol- 
erate Chicago's  twenty-five  miles  of  diabolical  saloons 
and  brothels,  with  her  thirty  millions  spent  annually 
for  gambling  and  licentiousness,  but  to  clean  house  in 
the  name  of  God,  and  make  this  state  and  city  worthy 
of  the  memory  of  the  man  who  struck  the  shackles  for- 
ever from  a  race  of  men,  so  the  glory  of  God  may  rest 


274  The  Conservation  of  Our  Moral  Resources 

upon  you.  I  am  from  Kansas,  but  somehow  Kansas 
seems  to  be  linked  to  all  the  nation.  It  seems  to  me 
there  is  a  breath  coming  from  Kansas,  that  our  brethren 
down  there  are  praying  for  us  in  this  convention. 

I  feel  in  my  soul  the  responsibility  of  the  mighty 
task.  Shall  we  save  America?  Shall  we  save  America? 
Won't  you  people  help  save  America? 

God  help  us  to  be  men  and  women  that  shall  stand 
four-square  to  all  the  mighty  propositions  that  are  up 
against  us,  and  may  the  stars  and  stripes,  as  they  float 
over  yonder  capitol,  as  I  have  been  proud  to  see  in  these 
days  we  have  been  here,  represent  the  sympathies  of 
honest  men,  and  the  purity  of  beautiful  cities  and  honor- 
able policies.  Let  us  pray,  as  we  close  this  convention 
this  hour,  for  the  strength  of  purpose  to  go  forth  to  do 
His  will  and  conquer  all. 

Prayer  by  Bishop  Quayle. 

After  which  the  convention  adjourned. 


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